According to Bloomberg, the government has been notified by Johnson & Johnson that the company won’t sign off on the supply of 20 million doses until it receives a letter from the South African government supporting its investment in a domestic company, Mkhize told lawmakers Wednesday.
“We have been taken aback by this as there are clauses in the agreement that express this support,” he said. “I mention this to demonstrate to members some of the difficult and sometimes unreasonable terms and preconditions that we have had to navigate through.”
More worrisome, according to Reuters is the fact that government’s downpayments to Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer for the vaccines are not refundable under any circumstances, a situation Mkhize described Wednesday as onerous condition.
It ditched plans to kick-start vaccinations with AstraZeneca’s vaccine in February because a small trial showed the shot offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the dominant local coronavirus variant.
Mkhize told a virtual meeting with a parliamentary committee that Africa’s most industrialised economy had to navigate “difficult and sometimes unreasonable” demands from vaccine manufacturers during negotiations.
“As government we have found ourselves in a precarious position of having to choose between saving our citizens’ lives and risking putting the country’s assets into private companies’ hands,” he said. South Africa is paying $10 per dose for the J&J and Pfizer vaccines, he added.
