MBABANE, eSwatini – eSwatini’s minister of labour and social security has died from the Covid-19 related complications, the country’s acting prime minister announced on Sunday.

“His Majesty’s government notifies the nation of the sad passing of Member of Parliament Makhosi Vilakati, the Minister of Labour and Social Security,” Themba Masuku said at a press conference.

“Vilakati died on Saturday evening at a South African health facility, where he had been admitted for a specialised treatment procedure arising from a Covid-19 infection. May his soul rest in eternal peace.”

Vilakati was recently transferred from Lubombo Referral Hospital to a South African health facility.

He becomes the second Cabinet minister to die from Covid-19 after the minister of public service Christian Ntshangase, who died last week and was buried on Saturday.

Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini died of Covid-19 in December last year while undergoing treatment in South Africa.

On Saturday, Health Minister Lizzie Nkosi said eSwatini had registered 111 new cases, taking the total to 14,330, of which 458 resulted in death.

The small kingdom says it aims to vaccinate all its 1.3 million people against Covid-19 and will set aside at least 200 million emalangeni (US$14 million) to do so, senior officials said.

eSwatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is participating in the COVAX global vaccine distribution scheme co-led by the World Health Organisation and hopes to receive enough vaccines for 20 percent of its population via the facility free of charge.

It wants to buy vaccines for the remaining 80 percent via COVAX but recognises it may have to source doses elsewhere.

“We are still trying to explore other sources for the vaccine in the event the country fails to secure the additional vaccine doses through the COVAX Facility due to limited supplies,” Simon Zwane, principal secretary in the health ministry, told Reuters.

“We are aware of the fact that the facility may not be able to supply enough vaccines to cover the whole population.”

Acting Prime Minister Masuku said Taiwan, a close ally, had committed US$500,000 to help eSwatini procure Covid-19 vaccines.

Zwane said eSwatini was interested in accessing the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca since the country for now can only comfortably store doses at between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius. Officials are working to improve cold-chain capabilities to handle vaccines that need to be stored at minus 20 degrees Celsius, he added. – Staff Reporter/Reuters