Flights to and from South Africa have been banned again and mandatory quarantine has been imposed again at great cost. This comes as a result of a new variant that has been discovered in Sub Saharan Africa.

This hasty and unwarranted decision comes as many people planned to be reunited with their families over the Christmas period. The cancellation of flight routes and mandatory hotel quarantine makes this impossible and unaffordable for many people.

With the UK opening up and going back to 'normal' due to their vaccination rate, it seems ridiculous that boarders would close off to Sub Saharan Africa simply for the discovery of a new variant. This also comes as a surprise since China claims to have only had 98,570 cases (ref: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/) in the origin country which has a total population of 1.4 billion people. The data seems inaccurate, but remains unquestioned. No restrictions have been imposed, or likely will be imposed on them. This appears to be very discriminatory towards South Africa and South Africans.

For almost 2 years, lockdowns have proved useless. Banning South Africa for the Beta variant didn't stop the Delta variant making its way through Europe. These tactics clearly don’t work and we need to fight to have this changed...again!

The new variant is already all over the world and South Africa is being punished for alerting the rest of the world to it. The Omicron variant has been detected in Europe and while South Africa remains banned, European countries are permitted entry to and from the UK with a PCR test on arrival and departure as the only requirement.

Please unite and let families be together this festive season.