Travel ban of South Africa is colonial mentality, says Dr. Blade Nzimande, Department of Science and Innovation Minister of South Africa.
“This stance is more informed by colonial mentality towards the Republic of South Africa and the African Countries. Instead, we expect these countries to acknowledge our scientific prowess and seek to partner rather that to punish us,” said the minister.
The South African Government News Agency, SAnews, reported that Dr Nzimande condemned the United Kingdom(UK) and other developed countries for knee jerk reactions over the country’s scientific work in genomic modelling.
Colonial mentality, according to Wikipedia, “is the internalized attitude of ethnic or cultural inferiority felt by people as a result of colonization.”
“The term has been used by post colonial scholars to discuss the transgenerational effects of colonialism present in former colonies following decolonization,” says Wikipedia
South Africa has called for lift of the travel bans following the discovery of the COVID-19 variant, Omicron.
President Cyril Ramaphosa had called on countries who have banned travel to South Africa to reconsider and lift the ban immediately.
Canada has confirmed cases of Omicron variant of COVID-19. It has issued guidelines and travel advisory on measures for Canadians and Canadian permanent residents returning to Canada from South African Countries.
