China\u2019s People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA), which over the past year has made vaccine donations to foreign militaries in 28 countries, has offered 300\u00a0000 free doses of the CoronaVac innoculation manufactured by Sinovac to the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).<\/p>\n
Minutes of meetings seen by amaBhungane show that in November the South African Military Health Service\u2019s (SAMHS) command council agreed to count how many members of the army still had to be vaccinated in order to determine how many CoronaVac jabs would be required.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The minutes state that the vaccine would be imported through the national department of health which \u201cwill not use it, so the ordered amount must be utilised by the Defence\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The department of health and the Numolux Group, Sinovac\u2019s official local partner responsible for distributing CoronaVac in South Africa, both acknowledge the Chinese offer. The health department says it was alerted to the offer \u201cseveral months ago\u201d and Nomulux says it was only recently drawn into preparations to import a consignment.<\/p>\n But the SANDF denies making plans to use Sinovac\u2019s vaccine and refuses to acknowledge the existence of an offer to donate the vaccine to the army.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sinovac\u2019s CoronaVac was given conditional authorisation for emergency use by the South African Health Products Authority (Sahpra) in July but is yet to be included in South Africa\u2019s vaccine rollout programme. The preconditions include the submission of final results of Sinovac\u2019s ongoing clinical studies and periodic safety updates.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The health department said it was \u201cwaiting for a formal request from the SANDF to import the donation of Sinovac for SANDF members.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The department said it has \u201cno idea\u201d when the SANDF will make this formal request but Lt-General Peter Maphaha, the surgeon general of the military health services, \u201cis in communication\u201d.<\/p>\n Numolux said the SANDF has not confirmed whether they will be accepting the entire CoronaVac donation made by the PLA or just part of it. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Defence will utilise it<\/b><\/p>\n According to the latest version of the Department of Defence\u2019s annual report<\/a>, the SANDF has 72\u00a0322 members including civilian support staff and part-time reserves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Item two in the minutes of the command council meeting in mid-November states that Maphaha asked for clarity on the number of members vaccinated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is to have an indication of how many of the Sinovac vaccinations will be required to complete the vaccination process in the Defence,\u201d the document reads.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The document goes on to say that the health department would be the one to bring in the vaccines for SANDF to use, before noting that Sinovac \u201cis not yet approved in South Africa\u201d.<\/p>\n When amaBhungane asked SANDF if it would be accepting the donation and making additional purchases of Sinovac to finalise the vaccination rollout in the military, it denied this.<\/p>\n \u201cThe SANDF has no plan to use Sinovac vaccine in order to complete the vaccination rollout for the military community,\u201d said Brigadier General Andries Mahapa, the director of corporate communication.<\/p>\n Mahapa added that CoronaVac was not approved by Sahpra \u201cand was never part of the national vaccine rollout\u201d.<\/p>\n While the Sinovac vaccine is not part of government\u2019s national rollout, Sahpra has authorised the vaccine for emergency use, taking note of a similar decision made by the World Health Organisation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Similar conditions were given to other manufacturers such as Johnson and Johnson\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/a>during the early stages of South Africa\u2019s vaccine rollout programme which limited access to healthcare workers in the Sisonke Trial.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs long as the vaccine is registered and complies with the conditions of their registration it may be imported. But SANDF will need to request that it be imported and provided to their members through [SA Military Health Service],\u201d said the health department.<\/p>\n But Mahapa said members of the military were a part of the national vaccine rollout and would use the vaccines provided by the health department.\u00a0<\/span>South Africa\u2019s rollout programme consists of two vaccines, one manufactured by Pfizer, the other by Johnson and Johnson.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Chinese diplomacy<\/b><\/p>\n Analysts have remarked that China\u2019s mask and vaccine diplomacy is a strategic opportunity for Beijing bolster its global influence amidst growing tensions with the United States, by leveraging existing bilateral relationships and building new ones.<\/p>\n 10 September 2021: Minister Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy Mr. Shen Long at the launch event for the paediatric clinical trial of the Sinovac vaccine in South Africa (Image: Chinese Embassy website.)<\/p>\n It also has the effect of shifting attention away from the narrative that China was the source of the Covid-19 coronavirus after being blamed for mishandling the initial outbreak.<\/p>\n A report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies<\/span><\/a> looking at the People\u2019s Liberation Army\u2019s Covid-19 health outreach contributions said the donations to foreign militaries would serve to \u201cpromote and further deepen links between the PLA and recipient military elites in those countries\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAs military elites form important centres of power in a number of recipient countries, the PLA\u2019s efforts could thus again be regarded as a branch of China\u2019s larger engagement with elites in various countries,\u201d the report states.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A paper by the South African Institute of International Affairs<\/span><\/a> on China\u2019s vaccine diplomacy on the African continent also notes that China\u2019s mask and vaccine diplomacy \u201cdrew some of its strength from the behaviour of other global actors\u201d.<\/p>\n As western countries pushed African countries to the back of the vaccine line, China\u2019s approach was more inclusive, with President Xi Jinping notably mentioning that African countries would be the first to benefit from future Chinese manufactured vaccines.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bridge Consulting<\/a><\/span>, an independent Beijing-based consultancy which tracks China\u2019s vaccine exports and donations across the globe, shows that China has delivered a total of 111 million doses, of which\u00a016 million were donations to 46 countries in Africa.<\/p>\n The discovery of a new variant of the coronavirus omicron, has served to increase Covid-19 medical research cooperation between Brics countries \u2014 Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In a statement released on Friday the Presidency announced that South Africa had extended an invitation to scientists from Brics member countries to share research and expertise on the Covid-19 virus and its mutations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Reports<\/a><\/span> show that a flight carrying a Russian medical team and a mobile lab was dispatched shortly after.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n SANDF and Chinese vaccines\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n The Chinese army began the military-to-military vaccine donations in February 2021 as part of Beijing\u2019s broader efforts to proliferate Chinese manufactured vaccines as a global public product.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Around the same time in South Africa news broke that the SANDF had not registered its members for the Sisonke Trial<\/span><\/a>, a mechanism to make Johnson and Johnson jabs immediately available to public and private healthcare workers while authorities processed the full licensing of the vaccine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This meant that medical staff in the military who were eligible for a vaccine through Sisonke were not able to get access to the vaccines launched in February.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Instead, eNCA reported<\/a> that in March, minutes of the military health service showed that SANDF had held meetings with the Chinese embassy to try and secure vaccines after the defence force union threatened to take legal action<\/span><\/a> against the surgeon general for failing to ensure that military health workers had access to the Sisonke programme. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n GroundUp<\/em> reported<\/a> that in February, the military had already put plans in place to run its own vaccination programme from end-to-end<\/span> but it was not clear how this would be carried out.<\/p>\n