Waiting for the sms from the vaccine authority seems rather like standing in an orderly queue for a lifeboat on the Titanic. Admirable, but unwise.

Completing the process at the DisChem headquarters in Midrand took five hours.

Sure it was a Ben Hur, but without exception every Dischem employee I encountered – from the guard who showed us our place in the queue to director Stan Gates who walked into the “recovery room” to ask recipients how things were progressing  – was obviously bent on being helpful.

It was one of the seminal new South African experiences: along with the first democratic election in 1994 and hosting the Football Word Cup in 2010.

We were in this fight against COVID together, and determined to beat the lurgy.

On social media I learn that many friends have received their vaccine must quicker and more efficiently. Good luck, I say to them. We are in this fight together.

It seems that all of us now have to wait 42 days to get the second jab.

There is a bid to tell us this is the most efficacious application of the vaccine. I don’t believe it.

We are being made to wait so that more people can get the first dose of the limited supplies of  vaccine available.

Remember the people now telling us about the need to wait are the same people whe were telling us 14 months ago that we did not need masks because they were afraid we would gobble up the available masks to the detriment of the health workers.

So wait I will.

Not at all sure where I will go to get the second jab. It would be great to avoid the five-hour process at GenChem, even if this means missing another chance to see  my new-found pandemic friends.

Discovery boss Adrian Gore has written a letter saying members should try the sites being set up by his medical aid society.

He seems confident there will be enough Pfizer to dispense the second injections.

From his mouth to God’s ear!

President Cyril Ramaphosa just tightened a band of cold steel around my testicles – metaphorically speaking, of course – telling us that South Africa would chuck out two million does of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

He’s blaming a contamination scare at its source in the the United States.

To his credit, Ramaphosa acted swiftly, decisively and courageously locking down South Africa early on in the pandemic.

However his government’s record in dispensing the vaccine this year as been less than impressive. Plainly speaking it has been marked by dithering and, by all accounts, corruption.

That is the antithesis of the British experience where Boris Johnson fiddled at the start of the pandemic, costing thousands of lives, but has done a sterling job of getting vaccine into Britons’ arms.

Could the G7 come to our aid?

At their summit in Cornwall last weekend, the leaders of Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Japan, Canada and Italy committed themselves to providing a billion doses of vaccine to poorer countries within the year.

Critics say this is a drop in the ocean for the developing world that needs at least ten times that amount.

We can talk about lifting the intellectually property rights to allow vaccine to be manufactured in South Africa, Senegal and other countries ready and able to do it.

If successful, that would be months away.

We need a quicker solution if we are to achieve the much vaunted herd mentality and avoid the plethora of variants to which we no longer may attach a national appellation.

Away with the political correctness and down with the blame game, I say with unashamed selfishness as I prepare to line up for my second dose.

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The practical issues of fighting the pandemic is best summed up in the assertion that no-one if safe until everyone is safe.

The moral issues, equally plain, have been more problematic as rich nations grab more of the vaccine than they need to save their faltering economies.

The foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan  and the United States had a packed agenda preparing for next month’s G7 summit to be hosted in Britain.

In pre-meeting briefings they listed Russia, Myanmar and Iran ahead of COVID a.

Then members of the Indian delegation – invited as observers along with Australia, the Association of South East Asian Nations, the European Union, South Africa and South Korea- reported cases of COVID and were forced into self-isolation.

India and Brazil are responsible for the overwhelming majority of COVID cases as the pandemic goes into its third wave.

The media covering the deliberations at Lancaster House in London’s West End have eyes for nothing else.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown set the moral tone calling on the G7 to fund the global push for COVID vaccine.

Speaking as the UN Envoy for Global Education he called on the richest nations raise $60 billion over two years, saying inaction now would lead to greater global division.

“By our failure to extend vaccination more rapidly to every country, we are choosing who lives and who dies”, he warned. 

“And I say the world is already too deeply divided between rich and poor to allow a new unbridgeable divide to become entrenched between the world’s vaccinated who live, and the under-vaccinated who are at risk of dying.” 

Brown asserted that mass global vaccination is not an act of charity, but “the best insurance policy for the world”.  Though costing billions now, the result will be “trillions of additional economic output, made possible when trade resumes in a COVID-free world.” 

Brown will be remembered as the British premier who hosted the G20 summit in 2009, where the world’s major economies committed an additional $1.1 trillion to address the fallout from the global financial crisis,  

World Health Organization  chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked Brown for his call to the world’s economic and political leaders. 

“The G7 are also home to many of the world’s vaccine producers. We will only solve the vaccine crisis with the leaders of these countries”, he said.

For those of a more cynical or dubious bent, a poll by the People’s Vaccine Alliance shows that70 percent of G7 citizens believe their governments should ensured pharmaceutical companies share the formulas and technology of their vaccines.

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They say the Abuja government has committed tom meet their demands.

ends intro

The doctors say they won’t hesitate to down stethoscopes if the authorities victimize any of their members for taking industrial action.

Spokesman Dr Saidu Alhassan says government has shown genuine interest in their plight.

They had no option but to to on strike because of their poor working conditions and the dangers they face as first responders in the CORONAVIRUS pandemic that that sickened a dozen people in Nigeria

This has  caused the government to close its borders to travelers from 13 high-risk countries including Britain, the United States, China and Japan.

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Kenya got the  continental body’s support in a secret ballot last week.

But Djibouti, which has been passed over three times, now says it will seek support from its friends at the world organization.

Somalia is believed to be behind the Djibouti move that has thrown the African Union into confusion.

Djibouti has powerful friends like the United States, China, France and  Japan who have military bases on its strategically-placed Red Sea port.

The question is will these countries also break with tradition and overrule the AU choice in the vote next June for the next East African country to fill a rotating seat on the UN powerhouse.

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He’s organizing all-night prayer vigils on the last Friday of every month for people to pray for infrastructure and economic development.

President George Weah’s religious advisor Emmanuel Nimely says divine intervention could save the Liberian economy, so people should heed the president’s call for them to pray for this for two hours daily

There has been a mixed public response to the president’s call for prayer.

Listeners to a Freetown talk radio show said the country was being run by evildoers so no amount of prayer could help it. 

Other insist that praying can do no harm.

Talk show host Hentry Costa say the United States, China and Japan grew their economies with hard work and wise investment not prayer. 

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He’s seen foreign affairs chief Maite Nkoana Mashebane and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

Britain’s Finance Minister Philip Hammond will see business leaders at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange this evening and move on to Cape Town tomorrow.

He’ll meet investors into Britain at functions organized by the Tutu Foundation and the Nelson Mandela Foundation

Hammond will impress on them Britain’s commitment to forming even stronger global ties as the country prepares to leave the European Union.

He’ll make similar trips to Japan and South Korea next week.

South Africa is Britain biggest export market in Africa and bilateral trade reached nearly R 138- billion last year.

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Foreign affairs chief Maite Nkoana Mashabane says the South African government stands ready to assist the Tanzania government.

President Jacob Zuma’s extended official condolences to Tanzania for those who lost their lives in the 5,7 magnitude earthquake that struck close to the border with Uganda and Rwanda.

Briefing the media, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana Mashabane says South African rescue and recovery teams are encouraged to pitch in.

“They’ve done it before in Japan and other countries,” she said.

Kenya’s donating building material and beds to Tanzanians left homeless by the quake.

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The ceasefire agreed between the two has largely held for a second day.

ends intro

Military aircraft are being used to get German, Italian, British, Japanese, Indian and Ugandan citizens out of South Sudan.

Scheduled fights to the troubled country have been suspended.

President Barak Obama’s sent 47 US troops into Juba, the capital , to help evacuate those Americans who want to leave.

Vice President Riek Machar’s  troops have left Juba .

He’s calling for a buffer of foreign troops to be set up between his fighters and those local to President Salva Kiir.

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The Horn of Africa country has fewer than a million inhabitants but occupies a strategic position on one the world’s busiest shipping routes.

ends intro

A divided opposition and lack of strong challengers virtually ensures Ismail Omar Guelleh a fourth mandate.

Term limits have been scrapped in Djibouti that’s had only two presidents since independence from France in 1977.

France, the United States and Japan have military bases in the country on the Bab el Mandeb Strait.

China is building its first foreign naval base there – skirting volatile regions in Africa and Middle East.

Guelleh has promised to use revenue from these military visitors to ease the grinding poverty affecting a quarter of his population.

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Speaking in a live television broadcast, the Tunisian leader vows the terrorist will not get far.

At least nine suspects have been arrested followingthe attack and two gunmen thought to have assaulted the Bardo museum were killed by security forces.

President Beji Caid Essebsi says it was clear there had been three attackers, because they’ve been identified and filmed on surveillance cameras.

The gunmen are said to have been trained in Libya in an area controlled by Islamic State (IS) militants.

IS says it’s behind the attack on the museum, which is next to the country’s parliament.

Twenty foreigners were among those killed in the attack, including British, Japanese, French, Italian and Colombian tourists.

President Essebsi says a monument will be erected to the victims.

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