Vaccine racism scandal costing NW health department

The North West department of health has had to ramp up its Covid vaccine awareness campaign to counter the impact of the alleged vaccination for whites only scandal that rocked the province last week.

The provincial department of health has also appointed an acting sub-district manager to ensure smooth inoculation in the Tswaing sub-district in Delareyville.

Three senior officials, including the Tswaing sub-district manager, are on suspension pending investigations into claims that they told black people the site had run out of vaccines, only to continue vaccinating white people.

Without information on how long this had been happening or means to trace those turned away, the office of health MEC Madoda Sambatha said the department has had to strengthen its vaccination outreach programmes to ensure they were vaccinated.

“To redress the situation we have strengthened our mobilization and vaccination outreach programmes in all sub-districts,” spokesperson Motlalepula Lekoma said.

She said this was done with the hope of also reaching those who were denied vaccines, but stressed that people were receiving their vaccines regardless of their race and that their vaccination programme for targeted groups was progressing well.

Lekoma said their message in the outreach programme was that vaccination was for everybody who qualifies to ensure public confidence in the health system.

She said the few that came forward after they were denied vaccination had been vaccinated and were integral to the investigation into the allegations.

The department would, however, not say whether the officials have been formally charged, or commit to a specific period to complete the investigation.

“We want to be thorough, as the matter was of national interest and involves senior managers. All we can say is that they remain on suspension pending the finalisation of the investigation. Remember it could go either way. They could all be cleared of the allegations altogether or some cleared,” Lekoma said.

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) in the province has charged that if true, the officials’ alleged actions would amount to attempted murder, and even murder, if any of those affected contracted Covid-19 and died.

The union’s provincial secretary Patrick Makhafane said they were yet to meet the provincial department on the matter but said they expected the trio to remain on suspension pending the outcomes of the investigations.

“To us this is an embarrassing to say the least, noting the years of our democracy…Such racial acts should be eliminated immediately when they raise their ugly heads. We will equally use our structures and our leaders to get to the bottom of this matter…” he said.

siphom@citizen.co.za