<p><a href="http://okayafrica.com/south-africa-announces-rollout-plan-for-covid-19-vaccine/"><strong><em>Read: South Africa Announces COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Plan</em></strong></a></p><p>The<a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/politics/2470267/malema-gives-ramaphosa-deadline-for-concrete-vaccine-rollout-plan/" target="_blank"> EFF party leader reportedly took to Twitter to share his frustrations </a>at the slow pace of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. His sentiments were shared by the Democratic Alliance (DA), the main opposition party. According to <em>Cape Talk, </em>the DA has threatened to open a case with the South African Human Rights Council (SAHRC) to investigate the government's<a href="https://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/413292/malema-threatens-to-stage-sit-ins-at-vaccination-sites-over-rollout-strategy" target="_blank"> "tardy and criminally slow" vaccine rollout</a>. Malema has been very vocal on the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. Following <strong>Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng's</strong> religious stance on the COVID-19 vaccine earlier in the year, Malema <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2021-01-15-sa-will-lose-war-against-covid-19-if-people-entertain-baseless-vaccine-conspiracies-says-malema/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">slammed the South African government</a> for not adequately educating the population on how vaccines work. Additionally, he called out the government for not being industrious enough to produce the vaccine locally. </p><p><div class="preroll-video"></div><ora-player></ora-player></p><p> Only a small fraction of the population has been vaccinated thus far, most of whom are frontline workers. According to <strong><em>The Citizen</em></strong>, <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/politics/2470267/malema-gives-ramaphosa-deadline-for-concrete-vaccine-rollout-plan/" target="_blank">283 629 healthcare workers have been vaccinated to date </a>— a far cry from the government's goal of vaccinating 1.2 million frontline workers. Ahead of the Easter long weekend, Ramaphosa announced that South Africa had set up 49 vaccination centres — 17 of which are located in private hospitals. </p><p><div class="dfp_atf-slot" data-not-loaded="true"></div><script type="text/javascript">
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</script></p><p>South Africa has, so far, secured 11 million doses of the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson — 2.8 million of these will be delivered in the second quarter, and the rest throughout the year. Additionally, 12 million doses have been secured from the COVAX facility and 20 million from Pfizer. These, exclude the country's African Union dose allocation.</p>
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