As Covid infection rates rise sharply, Business for SA (B4SA) and Business Unity SA (Busa) are pushing for companies to institute mandatory vaccine policies and prevent the unvaccinated from entering their premises.
The business groups believe mass vaccination underpinned by company mandates is the best option the country has to fight the pandemic and prevent devastating lockdowns.
But business organisations such as the National Employers Association of SA (Neasa) and Sakeliga are opposed to a mandatory policy, saying it could foment more resistance to vaccines and make the private sector complicit in helping the government take a big brother monitoring approach.
Business leader Sandile Zungu said that while he is pro-vaccination, blanket mandatory policies were “impossible” to implement and could result in widespread “civil mobilisation against the government”.
Zungu, whose Zungu Investments has interests from mining to property, said the government should focus instead on education campaigns to try to raise the percentage of vaccinated people. Estimates are that only about 25% of South Africans are fully vaccinated.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said last Sunday that the government had appointed a task team to look into mandatory vaccines and the possibility of barring the unvaccinated from , as well asrestricting access to public places. The statement has been welcomed by B4SA, BUSA and others, including Cosatu and the National Taxi Alliance (NTA).
Cosatu said the “economy and workers cannot afford continued lockdowns” and “vaccines had proven to be effective and safe”.
The NTA said its decision to support mandatory vaccination was informed by “the scientific outcomes of the researchers into the Covid-19 pandemic and the efficacy of the vaccines”.
The Black Business Council (BBC) favoured vaccines and supported the formation of the government task team but said the country should not rush to impose mandatory vaccination programmes.
CEO Kganki Matabane said while the BBC “believes that getting as many people vaccinated as possible is a better solution than lockdowns”, it favoured the approach the president had taken. “We are saying, let’s gather information first and let’s not rush into a decision.”
The law is clear on that, you have the right of admission reserved. We will be pushing that very aggressively
— Martin Kingston, chair of B4SA
The Minerals Council SA, which backs vaccinations, has developed board approved guidelines for member companies to ensure safe and healthy workplaces.
The mining industry is one of SA’s leading economic sectors in vaccinations, with more than two thirds of its 450,000 employees and contractors already partially and fully vaccinated by using educational and motivational initiatives.
“Companies’ vaccination policies may include our guidelines that employees opting to not be vaccinated must either produce a regular negative test or have a valid reason not to be vaccinated, and which is adjudicated by their employer, to enter the workplace,” the council said.
“The Minerals Council and its members are fully committed to safe and healthy working environments for all employees.”
This week, B4SA and Busa outlined their plans to boost vaccination take-up, with B4SA chair Martin Kingston saying the economy would struggle to withstand harsher lockdowns. “We’ve got to find a way to continue to respect the rights of individuals and have vaccine mandates.”
Kingston said B4SA and Busa were waiting for a high court declaratory order to give legal certainty on companies’ rights to require staff to be vaccinated and that this was expected in the first quarter of next year.
In the meantime, Kingston said, there was nothing stopping a restaurant or any business owner from exercising their “right of admission” to exclude unvaccinated people on the basis they pose a risk to other patrons.
“The law is clear on that, you have the right of admission reserved. We will be pushing that very aggressively.”
Discovery, Sanlam and Old Mutual, as well as universities such as Wits and Stellenbosch, have already instituted mandatory vaccine policies. Kingston said it was crucial that other companies were encouraged to do the same.
Busa CEO Cas Coovadia said mandatory vaccine drives worked, noting that 94% of employees at Discovery, which will institute a vaccine mandate at the beginning of next year, had now been vaccinated.
Discovery said staff vaccination rates climbed from 22% at the start of September to 94% by November 30 and that it expected this to move beyond 97% before the peak of the fourth wave, expected early next year.
Rosemary Anderson, national chair of the Federated Hospitality Association of SA (Fedhasa), said hospitality providers had thrown their weight behind the #jab4tourism campaign aimed at encouraging staff to get vaccinated “so that we can do our part in reducing the load on our health-care system, prevent further lockdowns and secure the livelihoods which this industry still supports”.
Fedhasa’s members include hotels, small accommodation outlets, restaurants, industry suppliers and service providers.
The best thing they can do is open the debate and let people freely debate it and say whatever they want to
— Gerhard Papenfus, CEO of Neasa
“We are hoping the government will take the lead in regard to vaccine mandates as President Cyril Ramaphosa indicated in his address on Sunday,” she said.
“Hospitality businesses would currently find it very difficult to implement mandatory vaccination for both their employees and patrons, so we eagerly await the outcome of the high court’s decision regarding mandatory vaccination, which will provide certainty and a clear direction for our sector.”
Gerhard Papenfus, CEO of Neasa, said he was opposed to mandatory vaccination or placing restrictions on the unvaccinated. “The best thing they can do is open the debate and let people freely debate it and say whatever they want to and that will give people confidence in the process.”
Piet Le Roux, CEO of business lobby group Sakeliga, was “firmly against government mandates and government exclusions based on vaccination”.
He said this had nothing to do with the merits of the vaccine and that the group favoured voluntary vaccination campaigns. The main issue was “about forcing people to vaccinate or making their lives unbearable if they don’t”.
Another consequence of a mandatory policy was that it “will make business complicit in a monitored society that will require continuous monitoring”, he said.
