from the ministerial advisory committee that workplace mandates are legal, the government has been reluctant to back them, even among health-care workers or teachers or other service workers in its employ. It prefers to continue encouraging vaccinations – rather limply – leaving it up to individuals to take advantage of the vaccines currently on offer.
Second, the health system is no longer under pressure. Like many other countries, the SA government watched in horror in early 2020 as Covid infections overwhelmed hospitals in Europe – opting for a severe lockdown even before the first death was registered here. The health care system took strain during successive waves but it now appears to be coping well.
Vaccination mainly reduces the risk of hospitalisation and death, and much less so the risk of infection. We shall probably have to get new vaccinations regularly, akin to the flu shot. Under these circumstances, it may appear politically rational to the national government to shrug off its initial bold vaccination plans and make vaccination an issue of individual responsibility rather than public policy.