EFF Challenges COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Through a Tender System

By: Pamella Majola

The EFF has expressed dismay that the Department of Health will issue out a tender for the storage and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines.

The health ministry announced that it will issue a tender on the 5th of February, 4 days after the vaccine has arrived.

The first batch of vaccines from India will be arriving at OR Tambo International in Gauteng on Monday.

The EFF says a responsible and proactive government should have anticipated that a vaccine would be discovered, and storage and distribution capabilities would be needed.

“It is shameful enough that the NDoH has on numerous occasions during this pandemic found itself mired in tender scandals and corruption relating to PPE and other essentials in the healthcare sector, that have cost lives of healthcare workers and innocent people, so that a selected few can profiteer,” says the EFF.

The party adds that the only way to stop all the corruption related to the looting of state resources is the abolishment of tenders.