Rising Covid-19 infections in the country will be closely watched this week, with less than 50% of the population vaccinated.
Only 49.2% of the adult population has had at least one dose, and millions of Pfizer vaccine doses are due to expire at the end of July.
Weekly vaccination numbers have plummeted from an August 29 peak of just more than 1-million to slightly more than 34,000 in the week to May 15.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has raised concerns about the growing number of Covid-19 cases in SA. “At the moment, I wouldn’t say there is a stage where now they should be bringing back restrictions,” Dr Owen Kaluwa, the WHO’s representative in SA, said.
It is also a critical week for the manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines in Africa. On Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa urged multilateral and philanthropic organisations to procure Covid-19 vaccines from African producers to ensure the continent retains its fledgling manufacturing capacity.
“International agencies that have had a lot of money donated [to them] for purchasing and procuring vaccines for developing economy countries are not buying vaccines from African vaccine manufacturers, even for those destined for African countries. This must change,” he said in an address to the second Global Covid-19 summit. The virtual summit was hosted by the US, Germany, Senegal, Belize and Indonesia.
Ramaphosa’s remarks follow a warning from SA’s biggest pharmaceutical manufacturer, Aspen Pharmacare, that it might have to close its vaccine production line. In addition, state-backed vaccine manufacturer Biovac may scale back its plans to bottle Pfizer’s jab due to a lack of orders.
It will again be a busy week in parliament with departmental budget votes in high gear. The ministers of justice, transport and public enterprises, among others, are expected to outline their priorities, projects and spending plans.
Also, public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane will again be in court this week to try to stop a parliamentary probe into her fitness for office. She has twice failed to convince the Constitutional Court that the impeachment inquiry she faces is unlawful. But she is now going to court over a text message and claims of corruption.
While Mkhwebane’s lawyers have tried to persuade parliament that her flurry of new litigation and criminal complaints about an unsolicited text message sent to one of its lawyers would justify it halting its investigation into her alleged misconduct and incompetence, the section 194 committee conducting that probe has not been convinced.
Meanwhile, with the ANC Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga elective conferences now wrapped up, all eyes will be on regional conferences in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. The outcome of the conferences to elect a provincial leader and executive committee will have implications for Ramaphosa’s bid for a second term as ANC president at the party’s national conference in December.
Further ANC discussion documents, which will be debated at the party’s policy conference, are expected to be released to the public this week. A leaked document on the party’s economic policy advocates for greater private sector involvement in the economy and proposes that private companies should buy stakes in state-owned enterprises, play a bigger role in infrastructure funding, and help solve the country’s energy crisis.
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