The Department of Education in KwaZulu Natal has slammed claims that there has been a lack of information on the location of vaccination sites for teachers in the province.
The Department’s spokesperson Kwazi Mthethwa says the vaccinations will be administered at sites already established by the Department of Health.
Mthethwa says there are 70 sites earmarked for the process. He says all stakeholders were made aware of this at a meeting on Monday night.
“Everyone who is supposed to participate in this process is aware. I’m shocked. We were with them last night already in a meeting. The same meeting was clarifying and tabling all the vaccination sites. We have seven zero (70) vaccination sites in this province. These are sites that are utilised by the department of health. So these sites have always been in existence. It is just that now, sites are going to also cater for teachers…” says Mthethwa.
“You will notice that at the site, there will be two queues there. There will be one queue for the elderly, but the other queue is going to be for the teachers,” he added.
Teachers across the country to be vaccinated from Wednesday
Johnson and Johnson single jab dose
Education officials in all provinces will receive the Johnson and Johnson single-dose jab.
Over the weekend, Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced that all employees of the department including teachers, admin staff and cleaners will receive the jab in the next two weeks.
Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga says they will start to vaccinate teachers across the country from this Wednesday.
Mhlanga says “All provinces are expected to start today with the vaccination; those are the plans we have in place. We expect everyone to start today and most provinces have planned activities. Different provinces have different numbers of people so they need to make sure that they share the information so that people know what to do what to bring and when to go to the vaccination site.”
The Educators Unions of South Africa has called on teachers to withdraw their labour in protest against the Minister’s decision to keep schools open regardless of the third wave.
They’re also skeptical about the vaccines that will be offered.
Educators Union of SA wants schools temporarily closed:
More than 127 000 teachers and support staff are expected to receive the COVID-19 vaccine over the next two weeks in KwaZulu-Natal.
Provincial Education MEC Kwazi Mshengu and Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane, will launch a mass vaccination drive in Pinetown on Wednesday.
Educators follow on the heels of people aged 60 years and older who are now eligible to receive the vaccine as part of the country’s phase 2 rollout.
EXPLAINER South Africa’s vaccine rollout strategy
