Cape Town – Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader, Julius Malema, has reportedly weighed in on the United Kingdom red list debate, saying the UK has the right to implement any restrictions as it sees fit.
The UK has kept South Africa on a list of nations banned due to Covid-19 risks.
This means that anyone arriving from South Africa is forced to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days, costing more than $2 400 per person.
Under the restrictions, Britain only recognises vaccines administered in a few countries.
For most of the world, and all of Africa, Britain won’t recognise locally-administered vaccines – even if the jabs came from Britain.
ALSO READ | South Africa seethes at UK’s Beta bogeyman ‘discrimination’
“We don’t want to continue to be the subject of our colonial masters. They must decide what they want to do, it’s their own country, they decide for themselves. Why should people be crying to go to the UK? The ANC government must also put the UK on the red list because it has been red from colonial times.
“They put you on the red list, you put them on the red list. They want visas from you, you want visas from them. We are equals. This thing that we are treated as a colonial subject is wrong and we must not allow it,” Times Live quoted Malema as saying.
Meanwhile, South African government officials said scientific experts met with UK counterparts on Monday to discuss the matter.
ALSO READ | Govt ‘working to have South Africa removed from UK’s red list travel ban’
According to EWN, the scientists shared the most up-to-date information about Covid-19 statistics on home soil.
The meeting was set up by the UK High Commission and the South African government.
The outcomes of the discussion, said News24, will be considered as part of the next review of UK border measures over the next two weeks.
Quoting a statement from South Africa’s department of health, the report said that the UK was also looking to extend recognition of vaccine certificates “as rapidly as possible”.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Picture: Getty Images
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Betha Madhomu
Additional reporting by AFP
