Vaccines being prepared at the South African Police Services (SAPS) Western Cape vaccination drive launch at SAPS Milnerton on July 08, 2021 in Cape Town, South Africa. Picture: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach
The proposal of vaccine passports has been met with mixed reactions following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address on Sunday night.
Ramaphosa confirmed that South Africa would move to level 2 lockdown, and further announced that the department of health was looking into vaccine passports.
This may require citizens to present before entering certain events and venues.
“We will also be providing further information on an approach for vaccine passports which can be used as evidence of vaccination for various purposes and events so people are able to demonstrate they’ve been vaccinated.
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“The department of health is looking at a variety of mechanisms like they have in other countries to either do it electronically through cellphones or other forms of demonstration,” the president said.
However, the matter has not been well received by some members of the public on social media, with one Twitter user saying that forcing citizens to show proof of vaccination was a violation of their rights.
This has raised questions about whether vaccine passports would lead to discrimination against anti-vaxxers.
Professor Tulio de Oliveira, director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (Krisp), acknowledged some of the backlash as well as support from a few over the vaccine passport.
“I think that people have to choose as freedom comes with responsibility.
“If you want your freedom not to be vaccinated, which is a right, you may not be able to travel internationally because the other countries may not want to receive you or you may not be able to go to an event.
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“So if people are really worrying about freedom then they have to do the easy thing and take the jab so we can go back to our normal days.
“I am against any kind of discrimination, but I think we really need to to think quite carefully and put on the balance of freedom and responsibility of both individuals and the population,” he told eNCA.
Compiled by Molefe Seeletsa
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