By Sipho Maseko
The South African communist party in Mpumalanga has lambasted what they labeled “outright rejection” of the vaccine that Madagascar developed to combat the coronavirus. In a statement released following their provincial working committee held via Virtual last week, the SACP said what concerns them is that the World Health Organization (WHO) and the whole World promoting a narrative that Africa can’t scientifically come up with a medical solution but only Europeans. “The meeting also noted with concern the outright rejection by the world of the vaccine that Madagascar managed to develop to combat the Coronavirus, instead of co-operating with Madagascan scientists to test the efficacy of the vaccine. We also feel that they must desist from perpetuating colonial stereotypes that the West and Europeans are superior and have the monopoly of wisdom, to keep other nations perpetually dependent on them, while they continue to maximise profit and keep other nations as mere consumers. We further think that WHO should defend the intellectual property and patent rights of African scientists and particularly the Madagascan scientists who discovered or invented the vaccine in the same way it would have if the scientists were from Western and European countries.” said SACP in a statement. Provincial chairperson of the SACP, Lucky Mbuyane said they are making a call to the political heads of government to give attention to the plant called Umhlonyane or Artemisia which has previously scientifically proven to fight malaria. “Look we hear that the country is considering testing the concoction and KZN is doing the same as they say. But we wish this couldn’t have been done a long time ago, and why Mpumalanga department of health doesn’t come up with their strategy on how they will also put the herb into usage to combat the virus,” said Mbuyane. However, people in Mpumalanga have started using Umhlonyane, and those selling it say the number of people buying is booming.
