Businesses push for mandatory vaccines to prevent further lockdowns

Business for South Africa has called for mandatory vaccines and a rapid move to restrict access to public facilities and indoor areas for unvaccinated individuals.

Several universities have already asserted a right of admission by only allowing vaccinated parties onto campus.

Mandatory vaccines

Avoiding severe lockdown

“Business for South Africa is advocating for these measures to save lives and avoid severe lockdown restrictions over the upcoming holiday period,” said its chair Martin Kingston.

The universities of the Witwatersrand, Free State and the Western Cape have already announced they will not allow unvaccinated persons from next year.

Healthcare group Medicare24 is also nearing completion of an app which assists with access control for companies and venues such as restaurants to match access to premises against an individual’s vaccination status.

Fourth wave concerns

Chief executive Mike van Wyk said: “We are in the beta phase of this development and if access to technology is a stumbling block to rolling out a national mandate, we’d be happy to share with government.”

Van Wyk added the fourth wave of Covid and the confusion over the characteristics of the new omicron variant, the deaths and economic collapse to date should be evidence enough that South Africa needs a mandate as soon as possible.

The Democratic Alliance does not support a blanket legislated vaccine passport. Instead, the party said it should be up to companies to enforce its own policies with regards to right of admission.

Aviation industry’s industry response to mandatory vaccines

South African Airways’ (SAA) Vimla Maistry said: “SAA fully supports calls to increase the rate of vaccinations in South Africa and again recommends that passengers get vaccinated.”

FlySafair’s Kirby Gordon said any kind of mandate may amount to another blow to an already crippled industry.

The commercial aviation industry in South Africa is wilting under yet another blow after more than a dozen countries slapped a red-list ban on travel into and out of the country last week, for the second time in a year following the revelation of the omicron variant.

ALSO READ: Travel ban: SA tourism industry loses over R1bn in travel bookings overnight

However, there may be light in the tunnel, after Clayson Monyela, deputy director-general: public diplomacy, department of international relations and cooperation, made an announcement on Twitter yesterday.

Monyela said he had been informed by the UK High Commission in Pretoria that British Airways would resume flights to SA from tomorrow.

The pandemic was the final nail in the coffin for several airlines globally, including Cathay Dragon, Air Italy, Flybe in the UK and at home, Mango.

Major setback for airlines

Aaron Munetsi, chief executive of the Airlines Association of Southern Africa said that the red listing is a major setback.

“Prior to the pandemic, the commercial airline industry in South Africa supported close to 472 000 jobs across the economy and contributed approximately R152.5 billion to the country’s economy.

This equated to 3.2% of gross domestic product.

“The industry is also of strategic social and economic importance in all of the other countries in the Southern Africa Development Community.

Impact on leisure air travel industry

“The business and leisure air travel industry in Southern Africa has only just begun to see green shoots emerge as governments have increasingly begun to relax and look to align and simplify their travel requirements and procedures.

“However, the UK’s unilateral step is a major setback that sets a worrying precedent,” he added.

ALSO READ: Travel ban on SA: What we know so far

Restaurateur Angelo Zachariades, who came under fire from anti-vaxxers for advertising that his staff were fully vaccinated on social media, said:

“It would be tough for the private sector to enforce a vaccination mandate. We would need government to take the lead and impose a mandate for the greater good of society.”

This week, Austria become the first European country to place two million unvaccinated people under lockdown, with greater freedoms afforded to those jabbed.

Other countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, are considering tightening vaccination regulations, too.

Vaccination in South Africa

In South Africa, only 24% of the population is fully vaccinated while in Europe most countries have inoculated two-thirds of their population.

Van Wyk added: “Covid is a communicable disease; it poses a significant public health risk and under the constitution, the rights of individuals can be waived for the benefit of the greater good.

“In addition, under the current state of disaster, the government has all the tools at its disposal to legally mandate vaccinations.”

He added this would not have been necessary had the public acted and gotten vaccinated. “I cannot see any court not granting an order to implement something so critical.”

Many businesses were reticent to take a strong position on a vaccine mandate, and none of them wanted to be named.