Deputy President David Mabuza has called on traditional and religious leaders to help government get more people vaccinated against COVID-19.
He was speaking at the launch of the Vooma Weekend vaccination campaign at Phokeng, near Rustenburg in the North West.
The province has a population of about four million, with just over one million vaccinated.
Earlier, President Cyril Ramaphosa said he was optimistic that people will come out in their numbers to vaccinate this weekend.
Ramaphosa said the eight-million South Africans who have been fully vaccinated so far is not sufficient to curb the infections.
“So, this for us is a very important weekend and that’s why I have directed that the Deputy President and Ministers should all be out. We believe that we now need to vaccinate 17 million people between now and the end of the year. And we believe that it is imminently doable. And all we need to do is to do 250 000 every single work day including the Vooma Vaccination Weekend to get to that number.”
