{"id":28783,"date":"2022-04-07T20:34:45","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T20:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-justice-initiative-heads-to-court-to-have-covid-19-mac-decisions-made-public"},"modified":"2022-04-07T20:40:12","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T20:40:12","slug":"health-justice-initiative-heads-to-court-to-have-covid-19-mac-decisions-made-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-justice-initiative-heads-to-court-to-have-covid-19-mac-decisions-made-public","title":{"rendered":"Health Justice Initiative heads to court to have Covid-19 MAC decisions made public"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The Health Justice Initiative (HJI) has approached the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to force the government to make all Covid-19 Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) advice public.<\/p>\n

It also commenced legal proceedings for the full disclosure of all Covid-19 vaccine contracts in February.<\/p>\n

The court action comes after the HJI made several attempts through departmental channels seeking information on both fronts.<\/p>\n

The HJI claimed it was, however, ignored even after making Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) applications.<\/p>\n

Lockdown is over – but these 3 rules remain for now<\/p>\n

In its latest court bid, it approached the court on Thursday to make expert Covid-19 pandemic advice and decisions public.<\/p>\n

The HJI said the case centred on access to information “that furthers transparency and accountability, which will set a rigorous precedent for future pandemics”.<\/p>\n

A senior researcher at the HJI, Dr Marlise Richter, added while it was happy President Cyril Ramaphosa had committed South Africa to Covid-19 interventions based on science and evidence from the MAC, the public needed to know on what evidence and on whose advice government decisions and interventions were based.<\/p>\n

“The public has a right to know whether the recommendations of any or all of the expert advisory committees were considered and followed. And, if not, what was the rationale for departing from it.”<\/p>\n

The HJI also wants to establish if there are any instances where expert advice was not followed or deviated from.<\/p>\n

It is also seeking clarity on the decision processes and rationale for vaccinating elite athletes, sports administrators and others ahead of their age cohort through the specially set up Sisonke vaccine programme.<\/p>\n

Richter said the HJI sought to understand the rationale where “queue jumping” in accessing Covid-19 vaccines occurred.<\/p>\n

“The public has a right to know how such authorisation came about and what reasons were provided for deviating from public health and ethical guidance on prioritisation.<\/p>\n

“There was a national policy of vaccinating per age cohort which was not followed – to benefit people other than healthcare workers in a time of scarce vaccine supplies.”<\/p>\n

Covid-19 vaccine court action<\/b><\/p>\n

It also launched legal proceedings on 22 February for the disclosure of all Covid-19 vaccine contracts and any applicable agreements with relevant companies and entities.<\/p>\n

The HJI said it was aware the government, likely acting through the health department, entered into agreements with manufacturers and\/or suppliers for the supply of Covid-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n

“The public does not know the content of these agreements.”<\/p>\n

Bara hospital runs out of food, nurses pool money to buy patients lunch<\/p>\n

HJI head Fatima Hassan said it was not enough for the government and vaccine companies to say vaccine contracts were “secret in a pandemic”.<\/p>\n

“Unelected private corporations and other entities, which benefit from public resources, should not be able to rely on ‘confidentiality’ in a constitutional democracy. It is regrettable that we have to try to expose their identities as well, through the courts, after our repeated requests were denied.”<\/p>\n

In its legal papers, HJI argued the public had a right to know what the terms and conditions of each contract were.<\/p>\n

It stated media and other reports have also shown South Africa might be paying comparatively inflated rates for Covid-19 vaccines and the government had to grant a broad indemnification against all claims of liability to benefit vaccine manufacturers.<\/p>\n

Never miss a story. Choose from our range of newsletters to get the news you want delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Health Justice Initiative (HJI) has approached the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to force the government to make all Covid-19 Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) advice public. It also commenced legal proceedings for the full disclosure of all Covid-19 vaccine contracts in February. The court action comes after the HJI made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":28782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[274,315,243,289,227,1364,280,275],"class_list":["post-28783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-coronavirus","tag-courts","tag-health","tag-health-justice-initiative","tag-lockdown","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nHealth Justice Initiative heads to court to have Covid-19 MAC decisions made public - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Health Justice Initiative (HJI) has approached the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to force the government to m ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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