EFF is trying to save lives, says Julius Malema at vaccine protest

Johannesburg – EFF leader Julius Malema says the party is trying to save lives hence the massive response to his call to march to on SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) offices in Pretoria.

More than 2 000 people joined in the march.

During the hour-long march, Malema staged a sit-down in the middle of the street as part of their protest.

The EFF is demanding that Sahpra speeds up the approval of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and the Chinese Sinovac manufactured Coronavac vaccine.

In February Sahpra said it was reviewing applications linked to the Sinovac and Sputnik vaccines.

Video: Kailene Pillay/IOL Politics

The EFF has been critical of the government’s handling of the vaccination programme saying more diverse vaccines should be procured.

Addressing the crowd before the march, Malema told his supporters that even though they supported the first national lockdown, they were not in support of further lockdowns.

“We’re not going to die in this stupid lockdown.

“We supported the first lockdown because we wanted to give them time to prepare for the surge.

“But now they stole from us instead of preparing to get more vaccines,” Malema said.

Video: Kailene Pillay/IOL Politics

“We need more vaccines from different countries. Sahpra is supposed to approve these. They want to give us J&J only which is not succeeding here in South Africa.

“There are more and more problems. We’re not being told what is the problem with Sputnik and other vaccines. They took the money for the vaccines.

“We are trying to save lives so we are here to march to save lives,” Malema said.

The crowd arrived outside the Sahpra offices in Loftus Park shopping centre where Malema is expected to address the crowd again and hand over a memorandum to Sahpra with its demands.