The Consolidated Direction on Occupational Health and Safety Measures in Certain
Workplaces, which was amended by the Minister of Employment and Labour with effect from
June 11, entitles employers to implement a mandatory vaccination policy for certain categories of employees.
The constitutional rights that come into play are the right to bodily integrity and the right to
religion, conscience or belief.
But Laubscher stressed that “This is where the difficulty will come in for people who will use
religion or belief as a reason for exemption. Such an employee will have to prove that
neither they, nor their children, have ever taken any kind of vaccine in their lives. It cannot
be a case that you’ve had some kind of epiphany during this Covid-19 pandemic,” she said.