The government's plan to introduce vaccine passports that would be used to access events, is welcome. This could be our only way back to normal life.
The proposed document has been a talking point in the media and social media platforms since the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday. The passports would be used as entry pass to events and for travel.
Some have welcomed the idea to create the passport as it would allow larger numbers of vaccinated people to gather at, for example, sports events, but others slammed it for exclusion and forcing people to vaccinate. Some argued that their right to freedom of choice was being tampered with.
However, chair of the SA Human Rights Commission, Prof Bongani Majola, who spoke to this publication yesterday, said the passports would pose a challenge only if they prevented somebody from accessing education or healthcare. He said preventing people from attending a soccer match was different.
“My gut feel is that you don't really have a right to go and sit at FNB Stadium; the right you have is not to be discriminated against. But if they say you only come in if you're vaccinated because there are 15,000 other people here whose lives and health we are trying to protect, why would one find that to be unreasonable?”
We agree with Majola, why would one or three people who have chosen not to vaccinate want to be allowed in a space with hundreds of vaccinated people? Why is your freedom of choice more important than protecting the lives of more people who decided to be inoculated to protect themselves from the severity of Covid-19?
Restaurants and events venues have a right to decide who comes into their premises; as much as one can argue discrimination but there is fair discrimination. In the case of vaccinated and anti-vaxxers it is fair to ban somebody who's likely to endanger lives of many rather than allowing them in and risk infecting people who have taken steps to save themselves.
This has been standard practice worldwide where countries do not grant entry to individuals who are not vaccinated for certain viruses and diseases to protect their residents. It is not a new norm only associated with Covid-19. Some counties already have these passports in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.
The sooner they are introduced, the better are our chances of returning to some form of normalcy.
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