For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.

Making headlines: Minister Pandor says SA must learn from the scramble for Covid-19 vaccines, SA parliament passes land tenure rights bill and, SA records 2 295 new cases of Covid-19

Minister Pandor says SA must learn from the scramble for Covid-19 vaccines

South Africa should use lessons from the pandemic to focus on ensuring that it can manufacture vaccines in future, rather than just advocating that these should be made freely available to all, International Relations and Cooperation Minister Dr Naledi Pandor has said.

Pandor spoke during a lecture organised by the South African BRICS Think Tank, made up of researchers and academics where she said there was no better lesson than the pandemic, towards the importance of research development and innovation.

A former minister of science and technology said South Africa couldn't be "arguing for vaccines to be a public good, but we are not able to devise a vaccine ourselves".

She said South Africa had the capability, the intellectual might and the institutions that could do this.

SA parliament passes land tenure rights bill

South Africa’s Parliament has passed the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Amendment Bill which aims to change the 1991 law of the same name so as to allow for the conversion of land tenure rights into ownership, among other things.

Parliament said its lower house, the National Assembly, passed the bill during its plenary session and it would now be sent to the upper house, National Council of Provinces, for concurrence.

The ruling ANC has a comfortable majority in both chambers.

The bill was necessitated by two orders of the Constitutional Court which found that the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Act of 1991 was unconstitutional because it discriminated against the rights of women to independently own property, while a section of it was inapplicable in some former homelands that existed during apartheid rule.

SA records 2 295 new cases of Covid-19

South Africa recorded 109 more Covid-19-related deaths by Tuesday evening, bringing the recorded death toll to 21 644.

Of the 109 deaths, 36 were recorded in the Eastern Cape, 12 in the Free State, five in Gauteng, 12 in KwaZulu-Natal, 17 in North West and 27 in the Western Cape.

Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said the cumulative total of Covid-19 cases recorded in South Africa is 792 299, with 2 295 new cases identified since the last report. Recoveries are at 732 531.

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

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