This week deputy minister in the presidency Thembi Siweya claimed in an interview that SA’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout was happening all over the country. She had been to monitor inoculation sites in Limpopo. When it was pointed out to her that in fact the only rollout happening was the J&J clinical trial study that was limited to healthcare workers, she was belligerent.

“You and I as South Africans don’t need to ask questions about a study, what matters is that we are rolling out the vaccine to our people,” she said. The deputy minister either had no clue what she was talking about or she was still labouring under the now exposed, disingenuous narrative the government had initially told us about that programme...