Balancing act: Covid-19 vaccine mandates don’t have to undermine your individual rights

Source: Safura Abdool Karim, Maverick Citizen, 26 September 2021, photo credit: Megsmenopause.com/Shutterstock

South Africa’s laws allow for the government to implement mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations but these mandates won’t necessarily infringe on individual rights.

The Brits might be doing it. Brooklyn and the Bronx are definitely doing it. The question is: should we be doing it? The South African government says it won’t make Covid-19 vaccinations compulsory for its employees for now – but that they won’t stand in the way of private businesses that want to introduce mandatory vaccinations.

According to Health Minister Joe Phaahla, the health department will issue vaccine certificates or passports to fully vaccinated people by the end of September, which businesses will be able to use to restrict access to venues based on people’s vaccination status.

Yet hesitancy may be a significant barrier to the success of South Africa’s vaccine programme – a survey by the Human Sciences Research Council in June and July this year showed that 28% of the 8,000 respondents were reluctant to be vaccinated.

With the aim of getting 68% of the adult population fully vaccinated to adequately contain the pandemic, introducing official policies to allow for mandatory Covid-19 vaccination is one way of getting more people vaccinated. Such policies are called vaccine mandates.

Countries such as Italy, France and Greece have, for instance, introduced mandatory vaccinations for health workers and certain government workers. And in the United States, President Joe Biden announced a plan that will require businesses with more than 100 employees to ensure their staff are fully vaccinated or show a negative Covid-19 test once a week before coming to work.

The raging question for South Africa is not so much whether the government should consider a Covid-19 vaccine mandate, but rather whether they can. And the short answer is yes.
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