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The national department of health has decided not to appeal a Pretoria High Court ruling that ordered the department to provide access to Covid-19 vaccine procurement contracts and other documents it signed with pharmaceutical manufacturers to a nonprofit organisation.
The Health Justice Initiative (HJI), which advocates for a more inclusive and equitable public and global health system, won its court challenge last month to compel Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla and the department of health’s information officer to hand over the documents to it.
READ: Court orders health department to hand over all Covid vaccine contract info to NPO
The organisation believes that the public has a constitutional right to access information about public procurement, including commercial details, signed by the government with pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers.
In his judgment handed down on August 17, Judge Anthony Millar agreed with HJI and set aside the department’s refusal to disclose the documents to the nonprofit organisation. This followed an unsuccessful application in 2021 HJI had lodged with the health department to get access to the documents through the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia).
Judge Millar ordered the department to hand over Covid-19 vaccine contracts and negotiation-related documents to HJI within 10 days of his judgment and imposed a cost order against the department.
READ: Ramaphosa, minister taken to court over Covid jab
Following the court ruling, the health department’s legal representatives requested an extension for the documents until the end of September. HJI granted the extension only for the negotiation meeting outcomes, minutes, and correspondence, but did not grant it for the contracts, memorandums of understanding (MOU) MOUs, and agreements.
On Friday, the organisation said the department had handed the documents for Covid-19 vaccine contracts to its legal team. The department undertook to share the remainder of the documents (negotiation-related documents) by no later than September 29 after reaching an agreement with HJI.
HJI director Fatima Hassan welcomed the decision by the health department to comply with the high court’s order. In a statement, she said this sent a “strong signal” to pharmaceutical companies on the importance of transparency when it comes to public procurement processes.
Hassan said:
“This is an important day for our democracy and for opening up the process of health procurement. It sends a strong signal to powerful pharmaceutical companies and others that in South Africa transparency cannot be bartered and is not up for sale - there really is no room for this much of secrecy in the health or any other sector,” she added.
The HJI said its legal team was reviewing what has been handed over by the department to assess if it is complete and compliant with the court order. The organisation said a multi-stakeholder civil society group would over the coming days, also analyse the contracts that have been handed over.
The information will be shared at a joint virtual press briefing on Tuesday. The release of part two of the documents will also follow the same process.
