One of the features of life in South Africa since the implementation of the 1996 constitution is an acute awareness of rights and the establishment of chapter nine institutions such as the Human Rights Commission and the Office of the Public Protector to uphold, inter alia, the Bill of Rights.
Specifically, section 12 (2) of the constitution accords the individual with the right to bodily integrity and the right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experiments without consent. It is a medical fact that none of the vaccines being applied has been properly tested and that they are all in a trial period. At least a further 30 months of testing has been advised by top US cardiologist Dr Peter McCullough in his recent testimony to the US Senate.
Thus, it is utterly incredible that politicians are deciding that teachers will be vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus (The Mercury, June 9). Equally incredible is the willingness of some teacher unions to endorse this violation of human rights and the silence of other unions on the matter. Moreover, why are the better informed amongst educators and principals not standing up in defence of section 12 (2)? And what of the governing bodies? Has everybody capitulated?
If 30% of the population had been wiped out, as happened in the Black Death between 1349-1351, desperate measures would be necessary. But with a recovery rate of over 95%, there is absolutely no need for a vaccine because the situation does not measure up to the proportions of a pandemic.
What the last 15 months has revealed is that politicians have been allowed to override civil liberties. The absence of resistance and opposition to the violation of section 12 (2) from those who usually are so strident in demanding their rights, is simply allowing the state to erode human rights even further. An Orwellian situation is unfolding.
Regrettably, complicit in this process is the mass media. If freedom of the press is as vital as it proclaims, then the mass media has been remiss in not railing against the violation of human rights where this vaccine mania is concerned.
Published in The Mercury 2021
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