Pretoria - The African Transformation Movement (ATM) has rejected the move to coerce people into mandatory vaccination despite that the phenomenon is increasingly gathering force among many institutions in society.
Party's national spokesperson Sibusiso Mncwabe said ATM was dismayed at media reports attributed to the executive director of Nedlac, Lisa Seftel who reportedly announced at the Council’s 26th annual national summit on Tuesday that Nedlac partners were backing the mandatory vaccinations.
"Right upfront the ATM wants to be very clear that as an organisation representing the interest of the people of South Africa in all spheres of government, we are not anti-vaccines.
“The ATM subscribes to Constitutionalism where the rights of all the individuals are respected including the rights of both those who want to participate in the ongoing vaccine trials and those who choose not to participate in the mass vaccine trials," Mncwabe said.
He said the ATM was guided by the Constitution, Section12(2)(b)(c) which said: “Everyone has the right to bodily and psychological integrity which includes the right to security in and control over their body and not to be subjected to medical or scientific experiments without their informed consent.”
"Given the record high unemployment rate, the ATM finds it both morally and ethically hollow for employer bodies, unions and government to have a deadly symbiotic relationship aimed at bullying and coercing desperate employees to submit to mandatory vaccines or get fired," he said.
Mncwabe said that while it was common cause that all the vaccines in the market place globally may very well be safe to consume, all were not capable of stopping the infection.
"Countries like Israel and the United Kingdom where vaccination rates are near 100% have not been spared the Omicron infection, meaning it’s irrational for the government and its Nedlac collaborators to force through our throats herd immunity narrative which has dismally failed to protect citizens of the first world countries. People of South Africa should not be forced to be customers of global pharmaceutical firms.
“The ATM rejects mandatory vaccines and will oppose it in Parliament and everywhere it rears its ugly head," he said.
He advised the government to "capitalise on the 96% recovery rate that was achieved without vaccines and strengthen those remedies whilst the scientists are baking a proper vaccine that will prevent Covid-19".
Pretoria News