South Africa has made massive strides in the fight against HIV. One of the country’s flagship interventions has been the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. Nevertheless, South Africa still has the world’s largest HIV epidemic. It’s estimated that 7.5 million people in the country have HIV. Women of reproductive age account for more than half of this number – 4.8 million.

South Africa’s civil society and the research community call on Acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi to do the right thing and follow international guidelines to ensure the Covid-19 vaccination programme is inclusive.

In this Daily Maverick op-ed, maHp/ACMS postdoctoral fellow Elsa Oliveira and research associate Rebecca Walker argue that, “government must support and protect all who live here, including foreign-born migrants”.

As countries begin to roll out Covid-19 vaccination programmes, maHp/ACMS director Professor Jo Vearey argues there is no place for ‘vaccine nationalism’; that the principle of equity in global health access must be at the fore.

According to CMS/maHp director Jo Vearey, Sally Gandar, Rebecca Walker and Francois Venter, the government’s decision to focus on tracking, detaining and deporting migrants as they cross into South Africa is at the expense of the many systemic challenges faced in accessing documentation – including Covid certificates.

South Africa’s biggest city is ground zero for debates about the long-term effectiveness and constitutionality of militarized urban policing and how we imagine the post-Covid city. maHp/ACMS writing fellow Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon leans in on the discussions.