By Patson Chilemba
Those opposing the measures announced by the government on the Covid-19 are basically engaging in lawlessness, says State Counsel John Sangwa.
Speaking with Daily Revelation over the Covid-19 measures announced by the government that it will now be a requirement for people to show proof of Covid-19 vaccination to access government premises, and that civil servants and public service workers must be vaccinated to be admitted for work, Sangwa said there was nothing unconstitutional about the move government had taken.
“But you need to emphasise all those opposed to these measures are basically engaging, they are advocating for lawlessness. Any law abiding citizen must be able to comply with these measures, they are designed to protect us. If they are not based on science then that is a different matter. They apply to everybody across the board,” Sangwa said. “Our policy should be because of the poor health sector that we have, poor health care system, our solution is prevention, it’s not cure. The is no treatment because you have no capacity and the only reason why we have to take these extreme measures is that we don’t know, nobody has a full understanding of what this virus is, okay.”
Sangwa said everybody, including the scientists were trying to play catch up, and that right now there was even divided opinion with one group saying the new Omicron variant is resistant to the existing vaccines, and others saying the existing vaccines could still deal with the virus.
He wondered why precautions should not be taken when every wave has been vicious than the previous one, saying it would in fact have been irresponsible if government did not take measures.
“There is nothing unconstitutional about those measures because first of all those people who are saying their rights have been violated they have to be very specific, because the constitution guarantees many rights. You can’t just say my rights have been violated, so you have to be very specific, which right has been violated?” Sangwa said. “But overall even the rights that have been guaranteed by the constitution, they are not guaranteed in absolute terms, okay.”
Sangwa said the rights people had can only be enjoyed in a state of peace and tranquility, and therefore the government has an obligation to take even the most extreme measures to contain the situation so that people could enjoy their rights.
“In fact all those people that are opposed to vaccinations they are engaging in lawlessness, because government has an obligation not just to protect one group of people but to protect everybody. What would have been wrong is if these measures are being selectively enforced. They are not,” Sangwa said. “They are applying to everybody in the country. Yah fine if you don’t want to be vaccinated that’s fine that is your right. Government also has rights, it has an obligation whilst it respects your rights. You don’t have the right to begin to infect other people in the process. So government has to protect the rest of the people.”
Sangwa said people must not forget that they voted for the government because they trusted that this government will do the right thing, and “government is doing just that.”
Asked on what rights the vaccinated have over the unvaccinated that only they should access government facilities when both parties contributed in voting for the same government to get into government, Sangwa said the vaccinated have the science on their side, the same science he said has proven that vaccination reduces the chances of spreading the virus and severity of illness.
Sangwa said no person’s rights were absolute, even in the absence of a state of emergency.
“For example we have a Public Health Act. Under that Public Health Act there is provision for rules to be made to be able to contain those infectious and contagious diseases. Let’s say you have an outbreak of cholera, why do we create cholera centers? If your relative has cholera what happens??” Sangwa asked. “Has anybody ever argued to say no I am going to take my relative to a private clinic for cholera? Will they allow you? They won’t allow. So government has a responsibility to make sure that cholera doesn’t spread, and sometimes you don’t even have funerals. Do you even have a funeral when there is cholera death? In fact the bodies are even disposed off by government if I’m not wrong.”
Sangwa continued.
“The only thing I would say is I hope the minister of Health did issue a statutory instrument backing up those regulations. That’s the only thing I would ask for so that those regulations are gazetted and every citizen can read them and understand them. That’s the only thing that they need to do. Government has an obligation to contain this disease,” said Sangwa. “You are better off taking extreme measures than taking no measures at all, so that if at all you find that the measures you have taken are extreme then you begin to loosen them. Okay, but when you relax your measures then things get out of control it’s very difficult to contain the situation after.”
He said precautions must be taken especially that there was no proper health care system to even talk about, and during the last wave people were dying while moving from one hospital to the other in search of oxygen.
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