After Kigali, Emmanuel Macron continued his mini-African tour of South Africa. He arrived in Pretoria last Friday for a visit focusing on the Covid-19 pandemic, South Africa is the country on the most affected continent. Emmanuel Macron and Cyril Ramaphosa have launched an appeal to the international community for the production of vaccines.
With our special correspondent in Pretoria, Pierre Firtion
Emmanuel Macron and Cyril Ramaphosa have called for Africa to be able to produce vaccines in the medium term, and not just vaccines against Covid-19. France will put the problem on the table at the next G7 in early June, where South Africa and India will be invited.
“Patents should not be a brake,” Emmanuel Macron said during a joint press conference with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, and finally agreed to call for a temporary suspension of rights even if the priority remains technology transfer.
South Africa is one of the most advanced countries to manufacture these vaccines in the near future. In this context, Emmanuel Macron announced on Friday afternoon that France would support financially, with other partners such as Germany, the United States or the World Bank and South African pharmaceutical companies such as Aspen or Bivouac.
The French president called for greater transparency on the vaccine price, especially in the case of the poorest countries. Emmanuel Macron also announced that France had contributed € 500 million to the ACT-A initiative. For its part, the European Union will supply 100 million doses to Covax’s solidarity mechanism carried by the countries of the European Union and the WHO.
We can not wait for our turn at the end of the line to receive these life-saving vaccines. We are waiting in this line but we are tired, we also want to be at the front of the line and this from now on.
Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa
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