By: Gideon H Chitanga
During a telephonic conversation with President Cyril Ramaphosa on March 18, 2022, President Xi Jinping said that China is ready to discuss cooperation in vaccine production with South Africa, thereby providing support to the regional giant and other African countries in their fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
This initiative presents a remarkable game changer in the capacity of South Africa in particular and Africa in general in fighting pandemics, as well as in broader relations between China and South Africa, and China-Africa cooperation.
China has committed to support the call for waiving intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines and to jointly produce vaccines in collaboration with African countries to guarantee the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in Africa.
The continent currently has the lowest uptake of Covid-19 shots in the world. The vast majority of vaccines have gone to wealthy countries, and there have been sketchy, even slower plans to make them available to African countries.
Although many African countries were able to secure sufficient and affordable supplies to respond to the pandemic, these doses represent only around half of what the continent needs to vaccinate 900 million people in order to achieve the 70% target set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Many African countries have fully vaccinated less than 10% of their populations, compared to 60% in North America, 63% in Europe and 61% across Asia.
South Africa, which has the leading rates of vaccinations, has only vaccinated slightly above 27% of its population, mostly in major urban areas.
The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the extent of Africa’s health challenges, including huge disparities that exist within and between African countries in accessing vaccines to stem perennial pandemics and provide quality healthcare, medicines and diagnostics.
The Covid-19 pandemic is proving to be protracted as it continues to morph into resurging variants spreading faster than before, posing bigger threats to the safety of people around Africa and the world.
As the African Union Champion on Covid-19, South Africa supports vaccine manufacturing in Africa to ensure self-sufficiency of the continent, capitalising on the depth of domestic scientific knowledge, expertise and capacity in the continent.
The production of Covid-19 vaccines in Africa will ensure that African countries are no longer the last in line to access vaccines to combat pandemics.
It will enhance the availability of more vaccine doses and access to better therapeutics to protect the people of the continent against future variants and pandemics.
As a game changer, it will bolster the agency of Africans in collaboration with their friendly partners like China to produce their own vaccines for the future, improving their readiness to deal with future pandemics by producing clinical trial materials on African soil while working towards mitigating other diseases of relevance in the continent.
The process of domestic production of vaccines will harness and build capacity and capability in South Africa and Africa to become self-sufficient.
Leveraging on its close relations with China, South Africa’s Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) registered the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine, also known as the Sinopharm vaccine of China, paving the way for its use amongst adults in South Africa.
The vaccine is manufactured by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co. Ltd.
In April 2020, the Chinese government donated tones of masks, surgical disposable masks, medical protective gowns, infra-red thermometers, medical goggles, disposable surgical gloves, medical shoe covers, medical protective goggles, disposable gloves and infra-red thermometers to South Africa to assist South African medical staff who are at the forefront of the fight against the Covid-19 virus.
Public institutions and private companies such as the Bank of China Limited, Johannesburg Branch, Alibaba, the Chinese Community in South Africa; Telecommunications giant Huawei, Industrial Commercial Bank of China Limited, African Representative Office, China Construction Bank Johannesburg Branch; and Land Pac, the earth compaction, company also made donations to the Government of South Africa towards combating Covid-19.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, China and South Africa have maintained close coordination under such mechanisms and platforms as BRICS, the G20 and the World Health Organization (WHO) and firmly supported these organisations in playing an active role in leading the international response to the pandemic.
China’s strong and effective actions to bring the pandemic under control, which were embraced by the World Health Organization (WHO), provided valuable experiences to South Africa and other countries as shared Covid-19 mitigation strategies. China also provided supplies in batches to the AU and all African countries that have diplomatic ties with the country.
China’s valuable assistance to South Africa and other African countries in fighting the virus at this testing time is of great importance. China and South Africa share a special friendly historical relationship of comrades and brothers, with close political, trade and policy ties.
The two countries enjoy strong party-to-party relationship between the ruling ANC and the Communist Party of China, government to government, and increased people to people engagement.
South Africa is China's biggest trading partner and export destination in Africa with the volume of trade between the two countries amounting to a staggering $1.67 billion (R24.4 billion), more than 20 percent of China's total volume of trade with the rest of the African continent.
China upgraded its relations with South Africa to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, characterised by tremendous advancement in political, trade and cultural exchanges gravitating towards mutual benefit.
The two countries also coordinate and collaborate closely in multilateral institutions such as the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the G20 and the UN promoting South-South interests.
China and South Africa also maintain close coordination on international and regional issues to safeguard peace through diplomacy, while upholding the interests of developing countries.
The Chinese government has committed to strengthening communication and coordination with the South African side to jointly uphold multi-lateralism, international fairness and justice and safeguard the common interests of China, South Africa and other developing countries.
China's support for the domestic production of vaccines in South Africa and other African countries is a fundamental game changer that will cement mutually beneficial relations fostering African self-reliance. The move will solidify South Africa and China relations while becoming a major nucleus for stronger South-South multilateralism.
Gideon H Chitanga is a Research Associate at the African Centre for the Study of the United States, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg