There Was No Trust : Apartheid Ghosts Stalk S.Africa s Vaccine Fears By Sofia CHRISTENSEN
02/05/21 AT 12:35 AM
At the very mention of the word vaccine , 82-year-old Josefine Hlomuka vehemently shook her head, her face clouding with worry as she gazed at the storm bearing down on her home in the Johannesburg township of Soweto. We don t trust, whispered the former peanut seller, haunted by the four decades she spent under apartheid.
White-minority rule was swept away a generation ago but faith in South Africa s government today, its reputation undermined by corruption and incompetence, is poor.
Such deep-rooted distrust, say experts, lies behind vaccine scepticism that has flared since coronavirus hit the country last March.
Members of the Saaberie Chishty Burial Society prepare the grave for the burial of a person who died from Covid-19 at the Avalon Cemetery in Lenasia, Johannesburg, on Dec. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Shiraaz Mohamed)
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) At the very mention of the word “vaccine,” 82-year-old Josefine Hlomuka vehemently shook her head, her face clouding with worry as she gazed at the storm bearing down on her home in the Johannesburg township of Soweto.
“We don’t trust,” whispered the former peanut seller, haunted by the four decades she spent under apartheid.
White-minority rule was swept away a generation ago but faith in South Africa’s government today, its reputation undermined by corruption and incompetence, is poor.
There was no trust : Apartheid ghosts stalk SA s vaccine fears Scepticism and suspicion have fed into a flurry of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic. Vaccine hesitancy is growing, even as leaders prepare a mammoth inoculation campaign set to begin this month. Picture: AFP
77 days ago
JOHANNESBURG – At the very mention of the word vaccine , 82-year-old Josefine Hlomuka vehemently shook her head, her face clouding with worry as she gazed at the storm bearing down on her home in the Johannesburg township of Soweto. We don t trust, whispered the former peanut seller, haunted by the four decades she spent under apartheid.