Opposition parties lament slow vaccine progress

HEALTH Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize came under fire from opposition MPs yesterday on the slow pace of the vaccination programme.

The government has vaccinated more than 400 000 health-care workers out of the target of 1.2 million.

Opposition parties said the slow pace of rolling out vaccines would make it difficult for the government to reach its target of inoculating 40 million people by the end of the year.

Mkhize was delivering his Budget vote speech when MPs slammed the government. DA MP Siviwe Gwarube said the government had only been able to vaccinate 1% of the population.

This was the 400 000 health-care workers that had been given injections.

EFF MP Suzan Thembekwayo also lashed out at the department, saying it was not on top of the situation.

“You have learnt nothing from the first and second waves, and you have not prepared our hospitals,” she said.

IFP MP Duduzile Hlengwa said while South Africa continued to face the grim reality of Covid-19, the government had been very slow to vaccinate people.

She said that while many countries in Africa and other parts of the world had moved quickly to get many people vaccinated, the same could not be said for South Africa.

Mkhize said: “It is important for us to indicate that we would like to see the speed of vaccination picking up.”

Mkhize said the delay in vaccinating health-care workers had not been of the government’s making.

“We do accept that this vaccination has not moved to the extent that we want it to. But we do want to remind honourable members and fellow South Africans that we have had challenges,” he said.