Botswana is among four Southern African countries that have not received donations of Covid 19 vaccine doses from the United States of America.
Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola are the only Southern African countries which have been left out of US President, Joe Biden’s shipment of more than 110 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to 65 nations that are among the hardest hit in the world.
Curiously, the four countries were the only Southern African countries that gave the green light for the use of Chinese vaccines even before the World Health Organization (WHO) approved the vaccines for emergency use. The quartet was also Southern Africa’s first beneficiaries of China’s vaccine diplomacy after signing vaccine purchase agreements with the Asian superpower.
COVID -19 vaccines have emerged as a new public diplomacy instrument as China, India, Russia, and increasingly the U.S. compete to project influence through donations or loans of their home-grown vaccines and the inking of vaccine purchase agreements with countries who have less access to vaccines.
At a time when the United States and the West moved slowly to donate doses to other countries, the Chinese government prioritised sending vaccines to developing nations. The aim behind the People’s Republic of China’s ‘vaccine diplomacy’ was to have greater influence over developing nations and to secure commercial deals.
Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola were the first three Southern African countries to receive Chinese Sinopharm vaccine donations and to sign purchase agreements in February and March 2021, two months before the vaccine was approved for emergency use by WHO on May 7th 2021.
Botswana followed in April when it received 200 000 doses of Sinovac donation from China after signing the vaccine purchasing agreement with China. Botswana entered into a Sinovac purchasing deal with China two months before WHO approved Sinovac for emergency use.
On June 3rd, two days after WHO approved Sinovac for emergency use, President Biden announced plans to share America’s excess vaccine doses with the rest of the world in an apparent move to combat China’s vaccine diplomacy.
South Africa which has not received any vaccine donations from China, and only approved the use of Chinese Sinovac vaccine last month (July) has emerged as Southern Africa’s biggest beneficiary of America’s vaccine diplomacy. South Africa approved use of the Chinese vaccine after the Marxist opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) defied COVID-19 regulations in June to organize a march in the capital Pretoria, calling for the government to seek vaccines from Russia and China, not just the West.
South Africa last month received a donation of 5,660, 000 doses from the US government, the highest in the region. Zambia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and eSwatini each received a donation of 302,000 doses.
Zambia was initially reluctant to approve the use of Chinese vaccines. By April 2021, when Botswana, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe were already using Sinovac, Zambia had only approved AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines to be administered in the first pillar of the country’s vaccination program. Zambia announced approval for the first Chinese vaccine Sinopharm on 1st June 2021 after it was approved by WHO for emergency use on May 7th. Sinopharm was the first vaccine developed by a non-Western country to get WHO backing.
It was only weeks after Biden announced his vaccine sharing initiative that Zambia on June 26th announced that it had finalized its Sinopharm purchase agreement and donation deal with China.
Malawi, Lesotho and eSwatini which have not received any covid-19 vaccine donations from China are instead benefiting from the Biden initiative.
