The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) urges all workers and their families to support the national Vooma vaccine weekend Friday 1st – Saturday 2nd October 2021. This is a national campaign that will take place at vaccination sites in all municipalities across the country.
Currently, there are over 87 000 South Africans who have succumbed to the deadly COVID-19, while many have lost jobs, businesses and wages.
COVID-19 remains a deadly threat that needs to be taken seriously by all South Africans. The Federation supports the various interventions government has implemented to manage this deadly pandemic. These include non-pharmaceutical interventions like the wearing of masks, sanitising and social distancing.
These interventions though can only take us so far, which is why it is important for South Africans to vaccinate. These vaccines have been proven to be highly effective in protecting people from being infected, transmitting the virus, becoming seriously ill, and most critically from dying.
We salute government for working hard to secure the supply of vaccines and putting in place the logistics for every South African to access these vaccines.
Millions of workers and South Africans have already been vaccinated.
What is worrying tough is an increase in vaccine hesitancy amongst some South Africans. The daily average vaccine rate has declined from over 250 000 to 150 000. This places in serious danger the national target of ensuring that over 70% of the population is immunised by the end of 2021.
As a country, we need to ensure that the daily vaccination rate is doubled and we urge workers to seek more information about the vaccines if they have any doubt. COSATU and its Affiliates are putting structures in place to help fight misinformation and help mobilise every worker to be vaccinated.
COSATU’s recent Central Committee issued a call for all its affiliated unions to ensure that at least 80% of our members are vaccinated by the end of 2021.
The Federation, therefore, welcomes the national vooma vaccine weekend starting tomorrow -Friday 1st October 2021. We are encouraging everyone who has not vaccinated yet to do so this weekend.
Vaccine sites will be open across the country and on-site registration will be done. The vaccines are safe and effective, and ensuring every person is vaccinated is critical to saving lives, to saving jobs and ensuring the economy can re-emerge safely. It is all in our hands!
Issued by COSATU
Sizwe Pamla (Cosatu National Spokesperson)
Tel: 011 339 4911
Fax: 011 339 5080
Cell: 060 975 6794