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Have your say on the Draft UCT Vax Mandate Policy

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Notice from Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng

Dear students and colleagues

Following the Council meeting held earlier this month and the feedback provided by the Chair of Council, I write to provide a further update on the proposal for mandatory vaccination at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

At the outset I want to stress that as a contact university known for its leadership and excellence, the physical presence and engagement of staff and students on campus is paramount to the success of our students and staff. We are doing whatever we can to ensure that operations at UCT – including teaching and learning, and research – return to full, on-campus functionality as much as possible while we continue responding to this global pandemic.

Following Council’s in principle approval of a proposal requiring that all staff and students provide acceptable proof of having been vaccinated against COVID-19 at the preceding meeting in October, an update on the work done by the university’s Vaccine Mandate Panel (VMP) was tabled at the latest Council meeting.

Following the tabling before Council, the draft policy is now published in full and is now open to a consultation process among UCT stakeholders. This process will be completed by 31 January 2022.

Comments can be sent via email to vmp@uct.ac.za. Once all comments are received, the VMP will consider these further and a final decision on the policy will be made by the UCT Council.

I urge you to participate in the consultation process.

The draft policy proposes the introduction of a campus-wide vaccine mandate that will be applicable to all staff, students, independent contractors, Faculty of Health Sciences joint staff (working at UCT premises) and other visitors.

All events held on UCT campus or premises, buildings, or residences, regardless of the organisers, are also covered by this draft policy.

The draft policy provides for staff and students to apply for an exemption to the vaccine mandate on narrow medical grounds and on grounds of sincerely and intensely held beliefs grounded in religion and/or conscience. Applications will be adjudicated by independent panels, and applicants whose applications are rejected will have a right of appeal.

The COVID-19 pandemic is unpredictable. We are currently in the fourth wave countrywide, and UCT will continue to respond to the pandemic in alignment with government regulations. We remain hopeful that we can for the majority of 2022 have campuses that are physically fully functional and remain as open as possible.

Sincerely

Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng

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Cape Independence Advocacy Group

Dear Speaker,

I am writing to you on behalf of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG) and the seventy thousand South Africans who actively follow our work.

We wish to comment on the ‘Electoral Commissions Amendment Act, 2021’, which is proposed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and was published in the Government Gazette on 21 June 2021.

Given our mandate, our comments are made in the context of the Western Cape, although we appreciate and respect that the constitutional rights enacted through this bill will rightfully apply to all provinces.

This bill is essential to restoring some degree of functional democracy to the voters of the Western Cape and we therefore unreservedly and wholeheartedly endorse it.

Through their voting behaviour, Western Cape voters have made it abundantly clear that they do not endorse many of the policy and ideological positions of the South African national government, but are left utterly powerless to resist them because the voters in other South African provinces, who greatly outnumber them, hold starkly different ideological and political opinions.

In terms of seeing their democratic will enacted, for the majority of Western Cape voters, the democratic era has not offered much of an improvement over the apartheid era. It is a statistical fact that, since 1994, the majority of Western Cape voters have never been governed by the political party they voted for, and they have no foreseeable prospect of ever being governed by the party they vote for. As such, they cannot be said to have functional democracy.

One of the few glimmers of democratic hope Western Cape voters do have, is the provision of Clause 127(2)(f) of the national constitution, and 37(2)(f) of the Western Cape constitution, which allows them, at the discretion of the premier who they elected, to have their voices heard on matters which are important to them, without being drowned out by a national majority who fundamentally hold different views.

To deny Western Cape voters this constitutional right would be a very serious infringement of their political rights and freedoms, and would be a clear indication that parliament and the national government are not interested in the constitutional rights and democratic wishes of Western Cape voters.

We therefore call upon parliament to pass this bill at the earliest opportunity, and without objection.

Yours Faithfully

Phil Craig
(On behalf of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group)