Vaccine passports or mandatory vaccines would be discriminatory and would amount to the “dompass” of the apartheid era, said ACDP president Rev Kenneth Meshoe in a press statement released this week.
He was responding to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s adress to the nation last Sunday night in which he spoke of the possibility of “introducing measures that make vaccination a condition for access to workplaces, public events, public transport and public establishments.”
“What is however, even more disturbing is that President Ramaphosa announced that ‘government has set up a task team that will undertake broad consultations on making vaccination mandatory for specific activities and locations.’ This announcement directly contradicts all his earlier undertakings that vaccinations will not be made mandatory. Can one then believe anything that President Ramaphosa or his government says regarding vaccinations?” says Meshoe.
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Meshoe’s statement continues: “What has made mandatory vaccines suddenly so urgent? While conceding that the introduction of such measures ‘is a difficult and complex issue”, the president states that “if we do not address this seriously and as a matter of urgency, we will continue to be vulnerable to new variants and will continue to suffer new waves of infection.’ How can making vaccines mandatory stop citizens from being vulnerable to new variants when the president at the same time admits that only ‘over the next few days and weeks, as more data becomes available, will (we) have a better understanding of…how effective the current vaccines are against the variant Omicron.’ At this stage, it is unknown, and there is no justification for the about-face on mandatory vaccines due to the variant Omicron.
“The ACDP supports the decision to review the use of the Disaster Management Act, with a view to ultimately lifting the National State of Disaster. We, like many others, have been opposed to the ongoing lockdown, which has devastated businesses, employment and the economy. Parliament has had no say over the continual extensions of the state of disaster as well as the contents of the gazetted regulations, which in many cases have been illogical and irrational. We will however be closely monitoring any amendments to the health regulations that may be used in place of the Disaster Management Act, particularly regulations that would seek to impose vaccine passports and mandatory vaccinations. We will contest such regulations all the way to the Constitutional Court, if necessary.
“Lastly, we believe that South Africa is being punished for its scientists’ ability to discover the Omicron variant by a kneejerk reaction of banning flights to and from southern African countries. This will have a devastating impact on the tourism and hospitality industries, just as these industries were starting to recover. We trust that these countries will reconsider their hasty decisions and reinstate flights to and from southern African countries.”
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It is not possible that the Lord has given us the tool of vaccination to protect ourselves against the danger of covid?
Vaccine passports aren’t a new thing. When I was young, if you wanted to travel to another country, you had to have a yellow vaccination card stamped to give details of all your smallpox vaccinations, and yellow fever and cholera – if they were applicable. I remember (in 1970) my sister being given a booster vaccination for smallpox at Paris airport before she was allowed into France – because her previous vaccination had expired.
Back then, you just accepted that if you wanted to travel, you had to have had all your vaccinations. And we were grateful for the amazing freedom of not having to worry about getting those dreaded diseases.
What on earth has happened to logic and common-sense in the world today?
It’s thanks to vaccines (and the wisdom that God gave to Christian scientists) that we’ve got rid of the scourge of smallpox, polio, and countless other diseases that led to horrible deaths and deformities.
Well said, Rona! It is sad that Christians of all people often speak against vaccinations, when statistics show that most hospitalisations and even deaths are usually among those who were not vaccinated. Even children under 5 are being admitted to hospital with Covid – because their parents were not vaccinated. There is no comparison between vaccine mandates and apartheid’s dompas. Take a free vaccination and go anywhere!
I wish to endorse the previous two comments. The Hon. Meshoe’s reference to the “dompass” is inappropriate, because vaccination passports do not discriminate on the grounds of anything as arbitrary as race.
Having said that, I would have a huge problem if mandatory vaccination were to be applied by the authorities to Churches. How terrible to be banned from Christian fellowship on account of one’s convictions concerning the jab! On the other hand, how firm is the religious commitment of anyone who continues to reject the jab knowing it will keep him/her out of Church?