President Cyril Ramaphosa said discussions were ongoing within his administration about mandatory Covid-19 vaccination.
“It’s a debate that’s happening in the country as well, and among various companies and organisations. It is global. We are becoming part of this process and we are also mindful of what our constitution says about the rights that our people have,” Ramaphosa said in response to questions by Business Day on Wednesday evening.
The media briefing followed the launch on Monday of the ANC’s manifesto ahead of the local government elections on November 1.
Ramaphosa said the government would not “force anyone to be vaccinated”, despite some organisations arguing that for them to be able to operate at pre-Covid-19 levels, “they wanted to make it mandatory for their workers to be vaccinated”.
“We understand that, but the trade union movement is not responding [kindly] to this compulsion that there must be mandatory vaccination,” he said.
“In the end it’s a discussion that will reach its own fruition ... Let’s engage first with our workers and make sure that it happens.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has battered the economy, which contracted about 6.4% in 2020, leading to a loss of about 1.4-million jobs.
The government is encouraging more people to be vaccinated, to open up the embattled economy.
The coronavirus has infected 2.8-million people in the country, with more than 87,000 dying as a result. The vaccines have been administered to just more than 17-million people.
Ramaphosa, addressing a Cosatu central committee meeting last week, called on the labour federation — which was against mandatory vaccines at workplaces — to convince and mobilise workers and as many people as possible to be vaccinated.
Ramaphosa told the meeting that the government respected the right to bodily integrity and all other constitutional rights. “However, this must be balanced against the right to a safe working environment and it is correct to take measures to ensure the economy can reopen in a safe manner that protects all workers.”
In her closing address at the meeting last week, Cosatu president Zingiswa Losi said the labour federation would “leave no stone unturned to assure all workers that vaccines are safe and effective, that they will save your life and protect your family”.
“We cannot afford to fail. We owe it to the nurses, doctors and health workers who have sacrificed everything to protect us.”
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