DA suggests Ramaphosa and Mkhize misled South Africans on vaccine acquisition

The DA has released a statement suggesting that Cyril Ramaphosa and Zweli Mkhize misled the nation regarding the timeline for the acquisition of a COVID-19 vaccine.

John Steenhuisen, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Federal Leader, took to Twitter on Wednesday, 13 January 2021, to issue a statement strongly suggesting that President Cyril Ramaphosa and Dr Zweli Mkhize have misled the country. The DA referred to the timeline detailed by the two officials regarding the acquisition of a COVID-19 vaccine for the country.

The statement read, “In his address to the nation on Monday night, President Ramaphosa claimed that his government has been working on vaccine acquisition for six months, which would have been since July last year. Yet, there is much evidence to suggest this is simply not the truth.”

Steenhuisen then poked holes at the claims of negotiations between the state and Johnson & Johnson. He suggested that the company that reached out to the government in August 2020, however, the state allegedly failed to see the negotiations through.

The statement further noted, “Furthermore, South African officials claim to have been in direct discussions with AstraZeneca since September, yet it is the Serum Institute of India, and not AstraZeneca itself, that holds rights to sell the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine in South Africa. It is no wonder the Presidency is refusing to give any detail on alleged discussions with AstraZeneca.”

The leading opposition party plans to submit a detailed parliamentary question, which the state will be obligated to answer.

See the post below.

The DA has been reliably informed that calls to the reputable vaccine manufacturers by government only started this year once pressure ramped up, even though some of them stopped taking orders in June 2020 already.

Did Ramaphosa mislead SA? –@jsteenhuisen https://t.co/tE4H5080nI

— Democratic Alliance (@Our_DA) January 13, 2021

Sabelo Makhubo
[email protected]o.za