What is the exact role of the provinces in the procurement of vaccines?
On 5 February 2021, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize stated that government was procuring the vaccines centrally and “then supplying both the private and the public sector for distribution”.
Western Cape premier Alan Winde stated that the Western Cape had established a “framework for provincial contingency vaccine acquisition (and procurement), to supplement the national acquisition plan”.
In an opinion in Polity, The Conversation considers the legality of the provinces procuring vaccines.
We don’t know whether any of the other provinces, or other organs of the state are also embarking on additional vaccine procurement programmes.
Provinces have the power to procure vaccines on their own. The law does not provide for mandatory participation in centralised procurement. If an organ of state can show that procuring vaccines falls within its legal mandate, it should be able to do so on its own.
This is provided by the decentralised public finance framework under the Public Finance Management Act and Municipal Finance Management Act, which includes procurement. In terms of this framework, organs of state are individually mandated and thus responsible for their own spending.