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Activist takes mandatory vaccine fight to Constitutional Court
In the past few months, big companies such as PSG and Discovery have encouraged employees to get vaccinated.
A medical syringe and vials of the Pfizer pharmaceutical corporation and BioNTech are seen. Picture: AFP/Getty Images/Cindy Ord
An unvaccinated human rights activist has filed papers at Constitutional Court against the president and Cabinet over mandatory vaccines and lockdown.
In the past few months, big companies such as PSG and Discovery have encouraged employees to get vaccinated.
Last month, mining service partner Fraser Alexander implemented a mandatory vaccination policy from January.
The University of Cape Town also announced restrictions for unvaccinated students for next year.
Human rights activist and lawyer Schalk van der Merwe said the human rights violations during lockdown pushed him to go back into law again.
On 20 November, Van der Merwe filed papers at Constitutional Court against the president and all relevant members of Cabinet regarding mandatory vaccination and lockdown.
Van der Merwe said it all started with a video on social media about 3 700 jab injuries reported in Secunda.
“There are already about 5 000 people now whom we know of with jab injuries. It’s everything from headaches through to people who have organ failure,” he said.
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Van der Merwe said he now deals with Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration-related cases of workers who have been fired due to mandatory vaccinations.
He said as soon as a jab injury complaint was reported to him, he assessed it to see if the case would stand then referred the client to one of the eight law firms that now work with him.
Van der Merwe said he was not vaccinated.
“There are many serious cases. One of the tragic cases is a young man of 32 years whose company pressured him to get the vaccine,” he said.
Van der Merwe said the healthy young man had two strokes and a heart attack within 48 hours of being vaccinated.
“Another man from Secunda became so ill his skin literally fell off his body. I have photos of it,” he said.
Public health lawyer Safura Abdool Karim said the idea of a workplace vaccine mandate was new and there needed to be legal clarity on its constitutionality.
– marizkac@citizen.co.za
