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SA has missed two payment deadlines for the first batch of the World Health Organization’s vaccination program, delaying the arrival of the vaccine to the shores of SA, the DA leader said.
“A vaccine is now the only solution and the only alternative to the blockade that is no longer a viable or sustainable means to stop the spread of the virus in our country.”
Steenhuisen said the government needed more in its arsenal than blockades and bans.
“The economy has suffered devastating losses after nearly a year of crippling lockdown restrictions.
“It is also inconceivable that the government would simply seek to shut down certain industries without simultaneously announcing a single penny of aid programs to save the economic devastation this will wreak on the hospitality and restaurant industries,” Steenhuisen said.
“Cancel the SAA bailout and use that money to accelerate the procurement and launch of vaccines and strengthen financial relief for affected industries. This would demonstrate a true commitment to saving lives and livelihoods, ”he added.
DA deputy Ashor Sarupen said Tuesday that the party had written to Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, imploring him to remove the R10bn bailout assigned to SAA in the second adjustment budget approved by parliament in early December, and to divert these funds to purchase Covid-19 vaccines instead.
He said the Prosecution has also written to the chairman of the parliament appropriations committee, the committee that approves the budget, to hold urgent virtual public hearings on whether South Africans want the ransom that has been allocated to SAA to be reassigned to mass vaccination against the virus. .
TimesLIVE
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