Deputy President David Mabuza has urged traditional leaders to play their part in encouraging citizens to vaccinate for COVID-19. Mabuza was in Nkomazi, Mpumalanga, to monitor government’s vaccine programme.
He interacted with residents of Nkomazi at the Matsamo Tribal Authority near the Eswatini border.
Mabuza is concerned that most men are still hesitant to vaccinate for COVID-19.
Mpumalanga is amongst the provinces with the lowest number of people who have been vaccinated, especially adults.
Mabuza conducted a door-to-door to encourage the young and old to get vaccinated.
He believes that some people are doubtful to vaccinate due to misinformation.
“What is quite clear is that we need to improve our messaging, and then we need to go to where people live. I think we can meet our target, as set by the cabinet, of December that we can reach the population immunity. It is possible … doable. This one here, we are here because it’s the last province that is not performing very well. It is at 22%, while other provinces are above 60%.”
Deputy President David Mabuza on a vaccination drive in Mpumalanga:
Some residents immediately responded to the call.
Among those who got vaccinated is 96-year-old- Emelina Sibiya.
Her son is Simon Khoza.
“She can’t walk properly and she is virtually impaired. The biggest problem is that we did not have money to take her to the vaccination site.”
Deputy Minister of State Security, Zizi Kodwa who was among those who accompanied Mabuza says they are working hard to ensure that they reach their vaccination target on time.
“We want to ensure and we think we will be able to reach our set deadline and target of 60% and above of the population that would have vaccinated. We think that the improvement in some areas such as Eastern Cape that are also rural, such as Limpopo and KZN give us hope that we can do better in provinces such as Mpumalanga as well.”
According to the Department of Health, only 22% of Mpumalanga’s population has so far been vaccinated.
Meanwhile, 150 000 cases have been recorded in the province since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
Below are the latest coronavirus stats:
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