JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa plans to spend $712 million to vaccinate some 67% of its 60 million people to control the country’s COVID-19 battle and get the economy to rebound from its decline of 7.2% last year. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said the vaccination drive will help South Africa’s economy, the most developed in sub-Saharan Africa, to rebound by 3.4% this year. Mboweni announced the annual budget a day after the national statistics agency said the country’s unemployment rate reached 32.5%. The unemployment rate among the youth is more than 60%, a staggering figure in a country where more than 16 million people receive welfare grants. South Africa’s economy was already in recession before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
