Premier Soccer League and Orlando Pirates Chairperson, Irvin Khoza, has called on prominent people in South Africa to lead by example and get vaccinated against the coronavirus, as soon as they are eligible.
Khoza says this will save many lives.
Dr Khoza was vaccinated on Monday, which was the first day of the start of Phase 2 rollout, at a government facility in Munsieville on Gauteng’s West Rand.
“It is very important that as role models we remain meaningful to our community that we impact on because there is no point of staying out of the community which raised me. When we say things, we got people who are able to copy and try to imitate and make sure that they do the right thing. It was important that we create that mindset which gives confidence in the efficacy of the vaccination. There is a lot of doubts gossip and mongering about the vaccination,” he says.
Khoza has also appealed to football supporters to be patient until they get a go-ahead from government on when they will be allowed to attend games at the stadiums.
Khoza says if many citizens could be vaccinated, this will give government a picture of when to give a green light for supporters to go to stadiums. Crowds at the stadiums are still prohibited. Khoza says now the focus should be to save lives.
“When there is a time for government to give a go-ahead. The reasonable chance of supporters who have been vaccinated. Supporters are passionate people. As much as you can give guidelines in terms of social distancing, but when the emotions are high they are bound to remove the masks and sing. But if you have vaccinated, you minimise the extent of the damage if you are able to catch up with the virus. I don’t think the government is ready now for everybody to be given the vaccination to fast track the test of how many supporters we allow to the stadium,” he adds.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says the number of elderly people who were vaccinated at more than 80 sites nationwide on the first day will be announced later on Tuesday.
The department says vaccinations at some sites were disrupted by Eskom’s load shedding.
SAMA calls for more vaccination sites:
Information on what one needs to register for the vaccine:
Loading…
