ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised to make space for black businesses in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines when the rollout takes place in the next coming months.
Ramaphosa was speaking during a conversation with black business representatives on the economy and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several black business groupings participated in the engagement with the ANC’s top six officials, hosted by the Progressive Business Forum, a fundraising arm of the ANC.
Participants were briefed on the vaccine programme by Deputy Minister of Health Joe Phaahla and senior Department of Health official Aquina Thulare.
“I agree completely that black business should participate in the vaccine rollout. Indeed there are going to be opportunities. Distribution is going to be the area where we are going to find opportunities for black business to participate,” said Ramaphosa.
“We want to support black businesses. We are in the process of appointing the Black Economic Empowerment Council and the Youth Council to bring then into the fore and appoint them to participate in the vaccine rollout. We want to champion the recovery of our economy.”
Phaahla, on the other hand, said there will be opportunities for black businesses when the vaccine rollout takes place.
“There will be opportunities for operators. We must not just look at big companies. We must also look at small companies,” said Phaahla.
“At the end of the day, we are relying on what is available from other countries. But as we will be procuring we should also be creating capacity in SA pharmaceutical manufacturers so that going forward we can have our capacity to produce our own COVID-19 vaccines.”
During the webinar, Ramaphosa also announced that deputy president David Mabuza will chair an inter-ministerial committee to ensure the country’s access to vaccines.
Ramaphosa said he had appointed the committee, which will deal with the “actual mechanics” of the process of vaccine distribution, ensuring that it is “well done”.
He said other key departments involved in the vaccine rollout will also be part of the committee.
“Today, we established inter-ministerial committee which will be chaired by the deputy president, I will chair the first meeting and set the whole process on the way so that we can deal with the various aspects of vaccine distribution,” said Ramaphosa.
More than 30-million doses of vaccine have so far been promised to SA in direct deals with manufacturers and agreements with multilateral agencies, including the Covax facility, organised by the World Health Organisation and global vaccine alliance, Gavi.
(SOURCE: INSIDE POLITICS)
