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Archbishop Thabo Makgoba.
- Archbishop Thabo Makgoba says that Covid-19 vaccines should not be used to benefit the few.
- Vaccines, he said, should be for the public good, and not for profit.
- Makgoba was preaching at a Mass on Christmas Eve, where he also spoke out against corruption.
Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has urged that when Covid-19 vaccines arrive, they be used for the public good and not for profit.
Makgoba spoke at a Christmas Eve mass at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town on Thursday, where he condemned the corruption taking place amid the coronavirus pandemic.
He said that the story of the pandemic should be about self-sacrifice and dedicated service to others, of nurses, doctors and other health workers, who have worked long hours, at great risk, to treat the sick, and of the health scientists and civilians. servants, who worked tirelessly to protect people and find new ways to fight the virus.
Makgoba said:
Sometimes, perhaps more often than occasionally, it’s easy to feel paralyzed – there are so many seemingly endless places of conflict. Corruption continues even when we have ousted the corrupt from power; the government tolerates leeches whose response to Covid-19 was to overcharge, exaggerate prices and financially violate our country and those most in need. And our society seems continually blind to what I call the “inequality of equality,” the persistence of inequality, despite our proclaimed commitment to equality …
He said that this year, perhaps people should use Christmas to stop focusing on self-preservation and start giving rather than receiving, not giving purchased material gifts in an atmosphere of feverish consumerism, but rather giving hope and practical help to the elderly, the unemployed. , the disabled and the marginalized.
Makgoba said that efforts to tackle corruption must be intensified if it is to be eradicated from political life.
He said a policy was needed that did not “talk to the poor.”
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He said that society must seize the moment to rethink its priorities and consider the value of what it wants to achieve.
“We need to think big and commit to making our dreams come true in our daily lives. We have already seen the benefit of thinking big, in the remarkably rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines.
“It is now our moral duty to share our vaccine knowledge around the world and make sure that vaccines should be for the public good and not for profit,” Makgoba said.
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