'Thousands at Risk' If South African Local Govt Elections Proceed

On 21 June 2021, Dr Fareed Abdullah made a submission to the Moseneke inquiry - headed by former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke - on whether South Africa can hold safe local government elections on October 27, 2021 - and whether the polls would be free and fair. Abdullah submitted that "elections be postponed to a time in the future when there is a demonstrable decrease of severe disease, hospital admissions and deaths as a result of high coverage of effective Covid-19 vaccinations", Daily Maverick reports.

The Gauteng Province's "skyrocket" in Covid-19 infections is a completely new phenomenon. It is most likely that this is driven by the Delta variant and it is therefore likely we will see these steep peaks in other provinces soon, or in the fourth wave. The idea that an election can be held in a window between the third and fourth waves seems like wishful thinking, Abdullah wrote.

As of July 2, 2021, South Africa recorded 1,995,556 confirmed cases of Covid-19 of which 61,029 proved fatal and 1,754,793 resulted in recovery.