Note: I edited this to fix formatting, and I initially suggested a different link [12], but have removed the suggestion, as the interesting point of the article is still made (the suspension of the specific vaccine).

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There's some important details not mentioned in the article, which make this more of an emergency than a reader of just the article will notice.

Allow me to paint some back story, but the summary is this:

- We (our country) got 1 million doses of this vaccine last week, being ill-prepared and flustered to get our act together

- These doses expire in April, we do not have a roll-out strategy because politicians played politics (I'll explain below)

- We are broke, and the trust between people and gov is diminishing quickly

Initial Lockdown (March 2020)

Many people were initially positive when our first lockdown started. The President set up a "Solidarity Fund" [0], with initial donations of ~$70m USD (R1 billion) from a few wealthy families in the country.

The government 'diverted' funds to the PPE roll out, and the President expressly said that there wouldn't be looting [1] of funds.

The government put us in a quasi-martial-law with a committee called the NCCC [2] (name can be found in the link), parts of which have been taken to court, because of arbitrary laws/rules, and a very apparent power-grab by the ruling/governing party.
Some of the bizzare things that came out of this NCCC:

- A ban on cigarette sales, not substantiated by anything scientific at the time. They lost the court battle, but true to form, are appealing [3].

- Regulations on sales of winter clothes. Arbitrarily defining the details of clothes that can be bought or not, what aisles to be used. It was as ridiculous as talking about crop tops and tights [4].

- Instituting racist policies to only help certain businesses [5]. I feel obliged to say that I'm an African black, and I agree with the sentiment that this was unConstitutional, as we all should enjoy the same rights. The gist of this was that the President said something like "this is a chance to redistribute wealth by only supporting black businesses".

The above has been met with criticism, and has eroded trust.

PPE Looting/Corruption

Now, one only needs to search for "PPE Corruption South Africa" to get stories about articles almost-daily.

- Premiers (leaders of provinces) have been implicated or accused

- President's spokesperson has been suspended, and has failed to submit her financial interests [6]

- As of October 2020, at least $700M USD is under investigation for being looted for PPE [7]. Politically connected people were setting up companies, selling 100ml of sanitisers for up to $3000 USD, all sorts of horrors.

Anecdotally, one of the provincial ministers (MEC) of education, has been up in arms against a white-owned/run trade union called Solidariteit, for deciding to build their own techno-university with private funds.

The university was to cost ~$20M USD, and has been completed after around 2 years.

I mention this, because this MEC's department spent ~$30M USD 'fumigating' schools that were closed during the lockdown.

The criticism has been that the virus doesn't last long enough in sufraces to warrant this waste.
He is unable to account, trying to use 'processes' to shield himself [8].

Funding The Vaccine

Now, back to the vaccine. The SA government is part of the COVAX programme [9].
They 'missed' the deadline to make a deposit twice last year [10].
The Minister of Finance will disagree with this, but for the Solidarity Fund, and other NGOs to step in, is troubling.

There have been discussions from our Treasury, to raise taxes to fund the vaccine [11].
This comes in the midst of irresponsible behaviour by our government, that has contributed to the closure of a lot of companies.

I need not bore the reader with details, but we are broke, our unemployment is rising (even the Statistics SA are stymied from gathering stats, because they're under-funded).

A pause of the vaccine rollout makes medical sense, but given that the doses that we've paid for and received 1 million doses (for a country of 58+million) [12], and have no roll-out plan [13].

So, how is a government that has looted more than enough money to pay for enough doses of the vaccine (less than the $700M USD 'under investigation') to the point of not being able to pay a mere deposit on time, going to fund alternative vaccines?

EDIT: Medical aid/insurers talked about sourcing the vaccines for their members, but government and the public at large seemed to initially be against this move. I don't know what's changed, but the private medical insurers are now helping government with administration instead.

It's a shame that Africa suffers, while it has the resources to alleviate poverty.

If you've read this far, this has been opinions of mine, with some articles to provide context. I'm no reporter. Thanks

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[0] https://solidarityfund.co.za/

[1] I can't find a reference to this anymore, there's just so much noise about the actual looting, that the initial promises are hard to find. I'll update if I find an article or tweet from Presidency.

[2] https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/govts-coronav...

[3] https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/459136/governments...

[4] https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-05-14-g...

[5] https://citizen.co.za/business/2259481/confirmed-guideline-t...

[6] https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/khusela-diko-...

[7] https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/442058/r10-5-bill...

[8] https://twitter.com/SundayTimesZA/status/1355806487650689024

[9] https://www.who.int/initiatives/act-accelerator/covax

[10] https://businesstech.co.za/news/trending/457668/south-africa...

[11] https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/461548/south-afri...

[12] https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-02-08-south-afr...

[13] The health minister was asking health-care practitioners on Twitter last week, to register themselves. There's been overall criticism by HPCs that they're in the dark about doses coming in just a week. This is something that should have started last year already. https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2021-02-03-340...