A South African court has ordered the "secret" Pfizer vaccine contract between the South African government and Pfizer from 2021 to be released, and the findings are shocking, but unfortunately not surprising.

The Pretoria High Court ruled in favor of the Health Justice Initiative group in August to compel the South African National Department of Health to provide access to all COVID-19 vaccine procurement contracts and other documents.

That judgment will not be appealed by the Ministry of Health.

"We are encouraged that the Minister and the Department of Health will not be appealing this ground-breaking judgment, and that it has undertaken to release all meeting minutes, agreements and contracts relating to its procurement of COVID-19 vaccines," said Fatima Hassan, Director of HJI.

"This is an important day for our democracy and for opening up the process of health procurement. It sends a strong signal to powerful pharmaceutical companies and others that in South Africa, transparency cannot be bartered and is not up for sale – there really is no room for this much of secrecy in the health or any other sector."