What South Africans Should Know, But Don’t, About Government’s COVID-19 Vaccine Procurement

GEO QUINOT|

THE COVID-19 pandemic has again highlighted the challenges facing public procurement in South Africa. The Auditor-General’s reports on COVID-19 related procurement and media coverage have all have flagged opacity, corruption and mismanagement on a wide scale.

In this context, one is understandably apprehensive about the next major procurement episode in the country’s response to COVID-19. That is the procurement of vaccines and the services required to vaccinate the population.

There is much that the public has learned about this vaccine procurement process. This includes the centralised approach adopted by the national Department of Health and which is the current supplier. One acknowledges that government has learnt some lessons from the procurement failures of its early response to the pandemic.

But there is much that is not known and much should be known. Some of this vagueness may simply be because the relevant aspects have not yet been finalised.