President deeply disappointed by decision to prohibit travel from SA
The President said the travel restrictions are “unjustified and unfairly discriminate against our country and our Southern African sister countries”.
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has called on all those countries that have imposed travel bans on South Africa and other Southern African countries to urgently reverse their decisions.
He urged them to lift the travel bans they have imposed before any further damage is done to the countries’ economies and to the livelihoods of people.
“There is no scientific justification for keeping these restrictions in place. We know that this virus, like all viruses, does mutate and form new variants,” said Ramaphosa.
He was addressing the nation on Sunday evening on progress in the national effort to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, at the Union Buildings.
Related story: Ramaphosa says vaccination ‘the most powerful tool’ as National State of Disaster remains
Earlier this week, South African scientists identified a new variant of the Coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 disease. The World Health Organisation has named the variant Omicron and has declared it a ‘variant of concern’.
The Omicron variant was first detected in Botswana and subsequently in South Africa, and scientists have also identified cases in countries such as Hong Kong, Australia, Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Denmark and Israel.
Countries that have imposed travel restrictions on South Africa include the United Kingdom, United States, European Union members, Canada, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Japan, Thailand, Seychelles, Brazil and Guatemala, among others.
“We are deeply disappointed by the decision of several countries to prohibit travel from a number of Southern African countries following the identification of the Omicron variant. This is a clear and completely unjustified departure from the commitment that many of these countries made at the meeting of G20 countries in Rome last month.”
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