Vuma Vaccination campaign must not be Digital Vibes 2.0

1 October 2021

The DA has taken note of the Vuma Vaccination Campaign announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa last night.

I will this evening, during the meeting of the portfolio committee on health, question the Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, about this planned campaign. We need to know:

Who will be responsible for the rollout of this campaign;

How much has been set aside for this;

How will Parliament be continuously kept abreast of the details of this campaign – its performance in relation to spend.

The DA has long called for the ramping up of the vaccination programme in South Africa. We have repeatedly called for greater community outreach to take the vaccination drive to where people are. However, we must make sure that we perform our constitutional role of ensuring that this is done transparently and to the benefit of South Africans.

Given the revelations from the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report regarding the Digital Vibes scandal this past week, we need to ensure that the Vuma Campaign won’t turn into a Digital Vibes 2.0.

South Africa needs complete and utter transparency over the roll-out of this vaccination campaign, because the country cannot afford for the Vuma Vaccination Campaign to be a front for the ANC government to fund its election campaign through the public coffers.

Issued by Siviwe Gwarube, DA Shadow Minister of Health, 1 October 2021