The plea made to parents by Gauteng premier David Makhura that they endorse and take part in the drive to get schoolchildren vaccinated against Covid-19 should be understood in the context of a government married, sometimes to a fault, to the ideal of consultative governance.
The call in itself is not necessarily a bad move and should in many instances be encouraged if government always seeks to take along with it those over whom it presides. But there are times when what is called for is leadership when the interests of the nation outstrip those of the individual.
Such instances may be occasioned by war, natural disasters and other scenarios that the nation may need to pull as one if it is to emerge triumphant from whatever it might be faced with.
Now, no one in their right minds can today dispute that in the Covid-19 pandemic, this nation and indeed the rest of the globe, is faced with a war we dare not lose. In war every resource is dedicated to the fight and the will to fight to the bitter end will be spurred on by those in leadership.
When leadership in the face of such enormous adversity is often called upon, history has taught us such great figures as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Junior and many others too numerous to mention, answered the call.
And often that meant making unpopular decisions that were in time vindicated. That is what is needed in our fight against this pandemic which has laid to waste much of what we regarded as normal in our everyday existence.
SA has paid a heavy price since day one of the lockdown as we too sought to bring this invisible enemy to kneel and eventually defeat. Many are yearning for the return to the normalcy we once took for granted.
The message has been drummed through since the day Covid-19 arrived on our shores that this is a war that will need everyone of us to put their shoulder to the wheel.
It is the turn of parents, whatever their beliefs, to put their personal interests on the back burner and do the right thing. Inoculation has become part of the armoury against disease and has been part of our lives. Babies and children have in the past been vaccinated without much ado.
It is actually against accepted societal norms if not downright criminal to refuse offspring vaccination. Children need vaccination cards to be admitted to start their school careers. Why then the sudden change in attitude by parents who may in their anti-vaccination stance just be denying their children the very right to life.
Maybe it is time to legislate to enforce vaccination of children; denial of a vaccine by someone else, parent or not, may just equate to denying them the right to health as surely guaranteed by the inoculation they received earlier in their lives, a decision in which their know-all parents had no say.
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