DAKAR – President Cyril Ramaphosa has revealed that he was at end of “patronising” and “disrespectful” phone calls from European officials alerting him of a travel ban after South Africa reported the discovery of the a new Covid-19 variant in the country, news site EWN reports.
“The European leaders said: ‘I am sorry to tell you we are banning travel, thank you, goodbye’,” Mr Ramaphosa recounted in a speech yesterday in Senegal’s capital, Dakar.
He added there was no attempt to hear South Africa’s point of view about the Omicron variant.
“We as Africans are respectful. We have always been – and maybe that is where our mistake is and why we were colonised in the way we were colonised because we respect too much, and we say ‘respect us as well’,” Rampahosa said.
EU Council chief Charles Michel, who was also present at the Senegal Peace and Security Forum event, did not address Ramaphosa’s comments but said suggesting there was medical apartheid in the handling of the pandemic was “dramatic.”
Meanwhile, the African Union (AU) has called on member states to urgently rescind travel bans imposed on South Africa following the detection of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
Researchers and scientists from South Africa’s Network for Genomic Surveillance were the first to discover the highly mutated Omicron coronavirus variant in late-November.
In return, international travel bans were imposed on South Africa and neighbouring countries for fear of importing Omicron.
African countries with restrictions on travellers from South Africa include Angola, Seychelles, Rwanda, Morocco, Mauritius, and Egypt, according to Flight Centre. The AU wants these countries to drop their bans.
“Current evidence, which underscores global spread and community transmission of the Omicron variant, does not support selective travel bans imposed on Southern African countries,” the AU said in a statement yesterday. – BUSINESS INSIDER SA.
Ramaphosa reveals ‘patronising’ calls from Europe
