The Gauteng MEC for Economic Development, Agriculture and Rural Development, Parks Tau, visited the Gallagher Convention Centre’s Discovery vaccination site to encourage residents and business leaders in the tourism sector to be vaccinated.

The visit on September 17 was part of the MEC’s pop-up campaign, #Jab4Tourism, to promote both vaccinations and tourism. 

During his tour, Tau said the sooner everybody was vaccinated, the better. “This is an opportunity for us to also communicate in particular with the frontline workers in the tourism sector, that the more of us are vaccinated, the more we can be able to accept people at our respective places of work,” he added.

Throughout the tour, the Gauteng Tourism Department gave goodie hampers to patients to explore the different tourism sites the province had to offer. 

Barba Barba Gaogamediwe, the acting CEO for Gauteng Tourism, said those who had gotten their jabs had taken an important step and heeded the call as vaccinations saved lives.

“We have vaccinated throughout the years, but as we know, Covid-19 has disseminated our economy. People have not been able to go back to their jobs. Revenues in establishments have gone to their lowest ever and airlines cannot fly. The tourism sector is disseminated,” he added.

Gaogamediwe concluded that there were 15 million people in Gauteng, therefore, if most people in the province got vaccinated, they could support most of the country.