Statement by GOOD Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, Brett Herron
4 February 2021
The Western Cape Premier’s much-publicised plan for the province to procure its own Covid vaccinations was just an opportunistic ruse to attract media attention.
The Western Cape Health Department yesterday presented its proposed vaccination plan to the provincial ad-hoc committee on Covid-19. It contained no reference to a provincial procurement plan. Nor did provincial treasury’s proposed R1.7 billion budget to implement the vaccination Programme.
After the presentation, I asked several MECs what had happened to their boss’ “go-it-alone” plan. They were vague and evasive, speaking of a need to consider contingencies in the event the national vaccination programme fails.
It appears that the Premier simply spotted a political opportunity in the delayed arrival of vaccines in the country to take political advantage of people’s fears and anxieties about the pandemic. So he took the gap and announced that the province would go-it-alone. The gap was then exploited by DA leader John Steenhuisen who repeated that the DA-led province was seeking to procure vaccines independently of national government.
Last week I submitted written questions about this alleged provincial plan (attached), to which the Premier is obliged to reply by Friday 12 February.
I do not anticipate that the Premier’s reply will provide any real comfort to citizens who took him at his word. Instead, the Premier will likely use the opportunity as another political opportunity to proclaim his party and province’s superiority over the rest of the country.
To exploit people’s fears and prejudices during a pandemic is unbecoming and divisive. To seek political currency out of the global scramble for vaccines, and raise the suggestion of competing with your own State and people in matters of life and death – at a time demanding of us that we should be pulling together, not apart – is devoid of any shred of integrity.
Citizens of the Western Cape should know that national vaccination sequencing has been designed to ensure equity and prioritise recipients from the most to the least vulnerable. Nobody – whether in the Western Cape or Limpopo – is better or worse, or more or less entitled, to insert themselves above those who should be prioritised.
Throughout the pandemic Winde, his government and his party have worked against the national strategy and further soured the national mood. They have fomented unhappiness over lockdown provisions; continually sought to second guess decisions and present themselves as more knowledgeable than anyone else, including the country’s scientists, national Covid response team and national government; and been ever-willing to rush to court.
They will contend that it is the job of the official opposition to hold government to account, and that national government has proven itself thoroughly untrustworthy for many years. I agree with both those contentions. But I disagree that this gives the opposition the right to be untruthful and indecent.
Ends…