News / Africa
'Ramaphosa made a mistake by closing the borders'
13 Jan 2021 at 18:00hrs | Views
Wits University's Health and Social Security Sytems specialist, Professor, Alex van den Heever, has slammed President Cyril Ramaphosa for having closed all the land borders on Monday evening.
According to Ramaphosa, the call to close all the land borders from the 11th of this month until the 15th of February is as a result of the surge in COVID-19 cases which are now averaging 15 000 on a daily basis.
"There was no need to close the borders. The surge in the number of COVID-19 infections is not as a result of people entering the country but of large gatherings as this is the main super spreader as long as people continue to attend large gatherings then we will continue to see a surge in COVID-19 cases," said Professor, Heever.
In addition, the Professor, also slammed government for having cited that the cost of procuring COVID-19 vaccines for the whole country would cost R20 billion (US$1.2 billion).
"That's nonsensical I don't even know how they reached this amount it's far much lower than than it should cost between R7 billion (US$450 million) and R8 billion (US$510 million)," added the Professor.
Most of the neighbouring countries are most likey to reel from the closed borders as most in the SADC region are into informal trading which relatively requires them to frequently travel to South Africa to purchase their stock.
Moreover, the cost of living is likely to increase especially when it comes to food even though transportation of goods is still permissible.
According to Ramaphosa, the call to close all the land borders from the 11th of this month until the 15th of February is as a result of the surge in COVID-19 cases which are now averaging 15 000 on a daily basis.
"There was no need to close the borders. The surge in the number of COVID-19 infections is not as a result of people entering the country but of large gatherings as this is the main super spreader as long as people continue to attend large gatherings then we will continue to see a surge in COVID-19 cases," said Professor, Heever.
"That's nonsensical I don't even know how they reached this amount it's far much lower than than it should cost between R7 billion (US$450 million) and R8 billion (US$510 million)," added the Professor.
Most of the neighbouring countries are most likey to reel from the closed borders as most in the SADC region are into informal trading which relatively requires them to frequently travel to South Africa to purchase their stock.
Moreover, the cost of living is likely to increase especially when it comes to food even though transportation of goods is still permissible.
Source - Daniel Itai, Johannesburg, South Africa
