Comment from Andrew Stark, Managing Director MEA for FCTG
I think the President presented a very balanced approach. It’s something we’ve been saying over the past year: we have all got to learn to live with this virus.
The President made a very good point around the fact that it seems that we have a surplus of vaccines. We need to get as many South Africans vaccinated, as quickly as possible. It’s still doable. The target was 65% of the adult population. It probably has to be a target now of 80% +.
The President is taking a great position to open up international travel as soon as possible, and to ask those nations that have made knee-jerk reactions to revert quite quickly. Hopefully, that doesn’t fall on deaf ears. Obviously what I’m optimistic about is that as quickly as borders were shut to South Africans on Friday morning that as quickly they can open up to South Africans again. Ideally, we’ll have corridors. We also need to put pressure on the fact that vaccinated travellers can have a pass when travelling internationally, and unvaccinated don’t.
It’s certainly good to see that the messaging is strong around potentially more mandates around vaccinated people. The government needs a stronger position on this. If you’re still able to roam freely in restaurants, public transport, etc, there is no incentive to get vaccinated.
I think it’s a much firmer and balanced approach; the country can’t afford further lockdowns as we know. Thank goodness domestic travel is still available. Let’s hope things move next week and DIRCO now does a job of unravelling the mess and chaos we saw on Friday and that international travel resumes for all South Africans, specifically for vaccinated South Africans.
