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Since 2020, South Africa has become the world’s champion in the call for equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines. On multilateral platforms, the government has been clear in its call for equitable and universal access to Covid-19 medical products and treatments not only for South Africa, but for the rest of the continent too.
The government has, at least in its rhetoric at high-level political gatherings, spoken out against vaccine nationalism and challenged the historically dominant power dynamics of pharmaceutical manufacturers. To support these statements, the government has, with India, jointly proposed a patent waiver on Covid-19 health technologies at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) Council.