vaccine mandates

Two officers patrolling Akasia in a South African Police Service RG-12 (Nyala) were shot and wounded. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Dickelbers

Vaccine mandates: Police union rejects call for mandatory jabs

Do you think vaccination should be compulsory? The country’s biggest police union has come out strongly against vaccine mandates.

vaccine mandates

Two officers patrolling Akasia in a South African Police Service RG-12 (Nyala) were shot and wounded. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Dickelbers

Vaccine mandates. The topic that’s likely to dominate South African discussions in the workplace into 2022. While several universities and companies have created a policy for next year, there is also some strong opposition to the idea. Police and prisons union Popcru is the latest to speak out.

Popcru rejects vaccine mandates

Popcru says that despite over 50 000 of its members having contracted COVID-19, vaccine mandates are a violation of individual rights. Since the pandemic began, Popcru lost 876 of its members to COVID-19.

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Speaking on eNCA, the union’s Richard Mamabolo argued that the constitution protects individuals from “medical or scientific experiments”.

“We are expecting that government makes sure that people understand the impact that the vaccine has on their lives.”

Richard Mamabolo

Despite this, Popcru says that is encouraging all of its members to get vaccinated.

Mandatory jabs the way forward?

Wits, UCT, Stellebosch and just about all other public universities have put a vaccine mandate in place for students and staff next year. Corporate giant Discovery was the first big name in the country to sign off on its own mandate. Cellular giant MTN is the latest big company to follow suit. Pharmacy giant Dischem is doing the same. And like a mandate suggests, if you don’t get the jab, you can lose your job.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has commissioned a task team to look at the feasibility of implementing vaccine mandates in certain sectors. Government is seemingly making it clear that it does not want to rush into a political hot potato.

This week, several organisations have revealed that they will look to the Constitutional Court for guidance over the legitimacy of vaccine mandates.

The South African Federation of Trade Unions is also opposing vaccine mandates over constitutional concerns. At the same time, it is embarking on a mass vaccination campaign.

Just under 38% of all South African adults are fully vaccinated. Government has said that it will begin to roll out booster shots from January.