This is according to the head of the Department of Health’s Vaccination Demand Task Team, David Harrison, who was speaking to Moneyweb’s Fifi Peters, regarding the importance of getting jabbed.

Harrison says whilst there are only 120 workplace vaccination sites in the country presently, the department is encouraged, by platinum mining companies in the Bojanala district that are willing to vaccinate surrounding communities and not only mine employees.

According to Harrison the uptake with respect to vaccination in the North West platinum district is very slow, with over a million in that area alone not yet jabbed.

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“For vaccination in the workplace to happen, the occupational health site has to be officially registered with the Department of Health. Government has worked very closely with the business sector to try and expand the number of occupational health services through the workplace. 

The reality is that we haven’t had as many workplace sites as we would’ve hoped. We’ve now about 120 workplace sites. But I think the encouraging thing now is that we are starting to see many companies saying that they willing to vaccinate not only their employees, but people in the surrounding communities as well. And here mining companies are at the fore” he explains.

According to Harrison about two out of every six South Africans are on the fence regarding the Covid-19 jab.  He says they’re the swing voters on the matter, and therefore need convincing. The department is trying to get them over the proverbial fence via several communication drives on different platforms encouraging them to go get jabbed and dispelling myths that exist.

Moneyweb and additional reporting by OFM News' Olebogeng Motse