SACP calls for caution and maximum compliance with universal COVID-19 preventative protocols, welcomes nomination of the Cuban Medical Brigade for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize

2 February 2021

 The South African Communist Party (SACP) notes the measures announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, 1 February 2021 during his address to the nation on COVID-19. The SACP calls upon every person and family in South Africa to strengthen their adherence to and ensure maximum compliance with universal COVID-19 preventative measures to protect and save life. While the infection rate in the unfolding second surge of the COVID-19 pandemic has declined, to 5 500 COVID-19 reported daily new cases from 10 000 in the past eight days, the current rate is still high. Furthermore, the new variant of COVID-19, 501Y.v2, to which the second surge is attributed, is more infectious than the earlier variant. Additionally, it is now widespread across the country.

In a society in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, where goods and services are produced as commodities accessible only in exchange for money primarily aimed at profit making rather than meeting human needs, it will always be difficult to balance between saving life and livelihoods. Therefore, the working class and poor who die because of disease are not killed only by the disease but also by the prevailing capitalist system that denies them access to productive work to make a living, income security, and income sufficient to access the necessities to protect and support life, including quality healthcare.

Retrenchments of workers by their capitalist bosses during periods of slackness of trade and related production downturn, such as has been the case in many sectors of the economy since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, accentuate the situation. Unemployment, poverty, inequality, and the crisis of social reproduction—the crisis affecting many people and families to make ends meet, have worsened not only because of COVID-19 but primarily because of the decisions adopted by capitalist bosses in reaction to the impact of the pandemic on production, trade, and profit making and maximisation. The capitalist neoliberal austerity agenda does more harm than good.    

Having made the above point, the SACP notes the decision to lift restrictions on alcohol sales and strongly cautions against irresponsible alcohol consumption and alcohol consumption related irresponsible behaviour and cost in our healthcare system.

Nomination of the Cuban Medical Brigade for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize

The SACP welcomes the Cabinet’s decision to approve ‘a proposal to nominate the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors Specialised in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics—or as they commonly are known, the Cuban Medical Brigade—for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize’. The Cabinet made the decision in recognition of the selfless and unwavering assistance of the government and people of Cuba to other countries in the fight against COVID-19, said President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, 1 February 2021 when announcing the Cabinet’s support for the nomination. ‘True to its history’, President Ramaphosa said, ‘this small island nation has demonstrated solidarity with the hardest hit countries and sent more than 3,700 Cubans throughout the world to assist in the fight against COVID-19’. Despite the limitations imposed in our country, which stand in the way of the Cuban Medical Brigade unleashing its full capacity, South Africa is one of the world’s countries in which the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors Specialised in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics is selflessly involved in the fight against COVID-19.

In the countries where no impediments were erected, wittingly or unwittingly, and therefore nothing stood in the way of the Cuban Medical Brigade unleashing its full capacity, the results were more impressive. For instance, many people across the world will forever cherish the arrival of the Cuban Medical Brigade in Italy in 2020 at the time when Italy experienced a massive COVID-19 devastation, taking the top spot in the world with high rates of COVID-19 spread and death toll. The arrival of the Cuban Medical Brigade in Italy and Italy’s warm welcome and fully supportive collaboration marked a turning point.    

The SACP joins the President in expressing sincere gratitude to the work of the Cuban Medical Brigade in South Africa and equally all our national healthcare professionals for their dedication to protecting the supreme right to life, even when this meant exposing their own lives to the risk of contracting the deadly virus. The SACP expresses its message of heartfelt condolences to all the families of the healthcare and other frontline workers in other sectors such as the Police who lost their loved ones in the course of their duty.  

Stop the ‘effective blockade against Cuba’ in South Africa

The SACP reiterates its call for the government to stop the ‘effective blockade’ against Cuban medicine in South Africa and solve the problem affecting the South African National Defence Force by addressing the problems arising from the problematic manner in which the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has come across. On the one hand, SAHPRA is imposing a blockade against the Cuban developed Heberon® Alfa R (Interferon Alfa 2b) which is approved across the world to treat numerous diseases including cancers and has played a crucial role against COVID-19 in numerous countries. On the other, SAHPRA offered conditional approval to Ivermectin because of public pressure. The SACP supported the call for SAHPRA to consider approving Ivermectin based on evidence from medical professionals. The way SAHPRA has come across in handling the two cases is suspiciously underpinned not by clinical considerations but political undertones. This matter cannot be left unattended.

The need to forge wider co-operation

The SACP calls upon the government to forge wider co-operation with other countries of the world and thereby avoid limiting our COVID-19 vaccine programme to United States and Western European developed candidate vaccines. Countries such as Cuba, China, and Russia have also developed or are engaged in developing COVID-19 candidate vaccines. Furthermore, Cuba, China and Russia are prepared to assist in developing productive capacity.

Issued by Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, SACP Central Committee Member: Media & Communications, 2 February 2021