Four months after the Health Department gazetted the establishment of the no-fault compensation fund, aimed at protecting citizens injured during the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, there is still very little information on how South Africans can go about reporting injury, adverse events or deaths after being vaccinated.
Daily Dispatch reports that the fund, approved by the National Coronavirus Command Council, will be financed by government and could cost about R250m in the first year. Retired Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo was tasked with heading the scheme.
Newly appointed deputy health minister Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo said that the process to establish the scheme was under way. “It is still work in progress. We have not actually finalised the process. We are working on it and once it is fully finalised, it will be made public. For now, it is still at consultation level,” said Dhlomo.
Philip van Staden, from the FF Plus, said the public was not given enough time to comment on the proposed fund.
“Taxpayers will be responsible for amassing the R250m needed for the compensation fund and therefore they have the right to provide input on how the fund will be spent,” he said. Van Staden added that the public had little confidence in the government and “to steamroller these regulations by allowing just four days for public submissions is not only undemocratic, but also raises the question of why there is so much haste to establish the fund”.
DA MP Siviwe Gwarube said a key function of setting up the fund was to ensure people who were unable to direct their concerns and claims to vaccine manufacturers for adverse effects and harm suffered, could direct them to the fund. “It is a great concern that this has not been set up as is the lack of transparency in the management of the fund,’’ said Gwarube.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
No-fault compensation fund rules released for 'rushed' comment
How the no-fault Compensation Fund for vaccine injury will work
SA's vexing problem of liability for potential vaccine side-effects