AfriForum requests clarity regarding Department of Basic Education’s statement about registration for vaccination

3 May 2021  

The civil rights organisation AfriForum today in a letter to the Department of Basic Education requested clarity regarding the statement which the Department made in a media statement that parents and guardians of learners will be required to register as part of the Department of Health’s planned vaccine programme.

According to Natasha Venter, Manager for Education Rights at AfriForum, the organisation is not opposed to the administration of the vaccine. “It should however be every person’s choice whether he/she, as well as his/her children, want to be vaccinated. Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa has repeatedly assured the country that no-one will be forced to receive the vaccine, but the Department of Basic Education’s statement about the required registration for the vaccine programme is not consistent therewith.”

The civil rights organisation, amongst other things, wants to find out the following from the Department:

What the purpose of the registration is.

Whether parents and guardians will be forced to register, as well as who they should register (themselves or their children/wards).

For what purpose the register will be kept.

Whether learners at public schools will be forced to receive the vaccination.

“All available research points to the fact that children and young people suffer minimal, if any, symptoms due to the virus. It therefore does not reasonably-speaking make sense that such a register is necessary. Should the government with this registration process intend to make the vaccination of learners at public schools compulsory, AfriForum will oppose it,” Venter concludes.

Issued by Chanté Kelder, Media Relations Officer, AfriForum, 3 May 2021