President says SA should be praised not punished for the fast discovery of the Covid-19 variant as peers react ‘like our former colonisers’
President says bans go against the spirit of the G20 Rome summit that agreed to open up travel and revive tourismPresident Cyril Ramaphosa arrives in Nigeria, November 30 2021. Picture: GCIS
Ramaphosa said African counties in the south had proven that they have the scientific capability to manage the pandemic. “The least that we expected was to be punished by various countries about what we have disclosed very transparently. “We are also insisting that these bans must be lifted because you do not try to contain a virus through imposing bans unscientifically and indiscriminately.”
Ramaphosa, who kept the country on adjusted alert level 1 on Sunday after the discovery of the Omicron variant, was speaking ahead of his weeklong four-nation state visit to West Africa. He will be visiting Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Ivory Coast. He is accompanied by ministers Gwede Mantashe and Ebrahim Patel.
“For us the tourism industry is one of the key industries, and for Southern Africa as well. So this is unfair and discriminatory against us and they are imposing a very unfair punishment. We reject it and we call on them to lift it with immediate effect.”
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