Please find attached soundbite from John Steenhuisen MP.
The censoring of scientists by the Medical Research Council (MRC), along with a grovelling apology issued by its board chairperson, Professor Johnny Mahlangu, to Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, makes a mockery of President Ramaphosa’s statement last night when he said: “We appreciate the diverse and sometimes challenging views of the scientists and health professionals in our country, which stimulate public debate and enrich our response.”
This gagging and grovelling follows a campaign of bullying of the President of the MRC, Professor Glenda Gray, after she spoke critically in an interview of aspects of the lockdown response. The bullying culminated in a letter sent from the acting Director General of the Health Department, Dr Anban Pillay, to the MRC on Friday instructing them to investigate Gray.
These actions of intimidation aimed at silencing opposing views are not acceptable in our open democracy, and particularly not in the circumstances of a pandemic response that requires constant updating and amending. We need a wide range of views to be heard. Now more than ever the principles of transparency and accountability are of critical importance. We cannot tolerate the authoritarian censorship of those who raise their concerns.
President Ramaphosa was being disingenuous when he said on live on TV that government welcomes challenging views of scientists. The exact opposite is true. Government is doing everything in its power to shut down the growing wave of dissenting views in the scientific community. The MRC members should have the freedom to express their opinions, even if these do not align perfectly with those of government. There is no point in co-opting 50 scientists onto government’s Ministerial Advisory Committee if they are all expected to hold and express the exact same view on all aspects of the Covid19 response.
Minister Mkhize was entirely within his rights to disagree with Professor Gray, which he duly did in a rebuttal piece. But for the Director General of his Department to write to the MRC instructing an investigation into her conduct, along with veiled threats of revealing other unnamed issues from unnamed sources, is simply unacceptable. It is equally unacceptable that the MRC capitulated the way they did before government’s bullying.
Government has already lost credibility in its Covid19 response by failing to supply the model and data on which it based its decision to place South Africa in the longest hard lockdown in the world – a decision that will cause untold suffering for an entire generation of South Africans. Gagging dissenting voices in the scientific community will certainly cost it whatever credibility might be left.
Click here to contribute to the DA’s legal action challenging irrational and dangerous elements of the hard lockdown in court