Taxpayers ‘won’t pay for vaccine fund’
DEPUTY President David Mabuza has insisted taxpayers will not pay extra tax to fund the new scheme for people who are injured during the vaccination process.
Mabuza told Parliament the compensation scheme would not require an additional tax to be introduced by the government. This was after opposition parties asked about funding for the No-Fault Compensation Fund.
“I don’t think we are intending to introduce any tax for that purpose. We are proceeding with the fund,” said Mabuza. He added that when the government procured vaccines, the companies insisted on the scheme.
“We must accept full liability for the vaccines they acquire. In our case it was either we accept these clauses, or we don’t get access to the vaccines,” he said.
He added that the reason the vaccination programme was proceeding at such a slow pace was because of delays caused by the rejection of the AstraZeneca vaccine after it was found to be less effective against the variant in South Africa, and the halting of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine in the US.
This was after six women were found to have developed blood clots in the US after being given the vaccine. Almost 400 000 people have so far been vaccinated in the country.
He said the roll-out would be increased in the next few weeks and months after more doses were secured from Pfizer and J&J.
Mabuza also called on people to adhere to health protocols with a possible third wave looming. He denied a claim by the EFF that the health-care system was collapsing. He said the system had been effective during the first and second waves. Despite some of the problems the health system has provided the necessary support.
Mabuza also said they would continue to support municipalities in distress. This was after he said that Eskom had entered into an agreement with several municipalities that owed it billions of rand. Municipalities owe Eskom more than R30bn.
Mabuza further said the deal would enable Eskom to collect revenue for municipalities, which would boost their coffers.
He said they would start with the 18 municipalities that owed Eskom large amounts of money.