Travel ban is political, and bad science

The phrase “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” aptly paints the picture in which South Africa finds itself in -declared a pariah state by world hypocrites for doing the right thing.

During apartheid there was a time when the international community wanted nothing to do with South Africa because of the inhumane racist system of segregation.

Like a leper, we were deservedly shunned in international sporting and cultural events, with biting economic sanctions making it impossible for South Africa to trade freely with the world of progressives.

That was understandable, when dealing with a country whose vast black majority had no right to vote, were not free to stay in residential areas of choice, could not marry across colour line and were made third-class citizens by a white minority regime.

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Now, 27 years into constitutional democracy, South Africa has to endure the wrath of yesteryear’s progressives again – the US, UK, Germany, Dubai, Mauritius and some African copycats among them – and we are punished
for alerting the World Health Organisation (WHO) about the emergence of omicron.

As if South Africa has done something illegal, countries have resorted to close their borders to us and imposed a SA travel ban.

Despite top government officials in the US and Britain being in contact with their South African counterparts – lauding SA leaders for notifying WHO on omicron (in line with international convention) – they have ironically seen it fit to punish South Africa through a travel blockade.

The timing of the travel ban has come when the tourism industry is recovering from previous hard Covid lockdowns, with many local hotels and tourist attractions expecting an influx of foreign travellers during the festive season.

The travel ban has been correctly condemned as being uninformed by any scientific sense.

Experts such as University of Stellenbosch sustainable development professor Mark Swilling have pointed out there seemed to be no empirical reason for the travel blockade.

The virus, argued Swilling, “could have emerged from anywhere”.

He said: “In SA, we have advanced sequencing systems which made it possible for local scientists to identify the variant and give it a name.

“That is no grounds to define it as a South African variant and therefore there is no ground for the responses of countries that have imposed the travel ban.”

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Swilling’s analysis leaves us with one speculation – that the move was motivated by politics. No-one has put it so well than African Union vaccine delivery alliance co-chair Ayoade Alakija.

Alakija told the BBC during an interview: “What is going on right now is inevitable; it’s a result of the world’s failure to vaccinate in an equitable, urgent and speedy manner.

“It is as a result of hoarding [of vaccines] by high-income countries of the world and, quite frankly, it is unacceptable.

“These travel bans are based in politics and not on science. It is wrong. Why are we locking away Africa when this virus is already on three continents?”

So much for world hypocrisy.