The South African Communist Party has raised concerns over escalating unemployment in South Africa amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The public and private sectors have recorded massive job losses in 2020 due to the negative financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
SACP General-Secretary Dr Blade Nzimande briefed the media on outcomes of the party’s Central Committee meeting:
“As the SACP we are concerned that COVID-19 has actually exacerbated inequalities in societies across the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed and deepened the capitalist crisis of high levels of inequality, unemployment and poverty in our country. The reality is that SA is yet to recover the 2.2million jobs lost in the second quarter of 2020 and more jobs lost thereafter as the capitalist bosses continue to retrench workers.
SACP calls on WHO to ensure equal distribution of COVID-19 vaccine
The party also called on the World Health Organisation (WHO) to ensure the equal distribution of vaccines to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic across the globe.
Shipments of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines are starting to be distributed to various countries – as nations experience second and third surges of COVID-19.
“The SACP calls upon the WHO to ensure that COVID-19 vaccine development is geared towards making the COVID-19 vaccine universally accessible as a public good. As the COVID-19 global pandemic crisis is underlined, any part of the world would affect the entire world, so there must be equitable distribution of the vaccine worldwide,” says Nzimande.
Health experts have encouraged people to embrace the COVID-19 vaccine expected to be rolled out in the country in the second quarter of next year.
Speaking during a panel discussion briefing hosted by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, the Ministerial Advisory Committee’s Professor Salim Abdool Karim says at this stage it’s not yet clear if the already developed vaccines for the coronavirus will be effective on the new variant of COVID-19.
