​Rofhiwa Marubini 
People who are 18-year-olds and 35 will be eligible to register for their COVID-19 vaccinations from Friday, August 20.
The move was approved by the Cabinet as part of increasing the vaccination roll-out programme. 
This means that the group will not have to wait until September 1, which was the initial date.
The cabinet has urged people to dispel unfounded and misleading conspiracy theories about the vaccine.
"Scientific evidence confirms that vaccinated people stand a better chance of surviving from COVID-19 than unvaccinated people. Cabinet encourages all unvaccinated people in South Africa to get vaccinated because vaccines protect us from getting seriously ill from COVID-19 and they save lives." Cabinet said in a statement on Thursday.
The executive welcomed the vaccination roll -out plan to increase the uptake of vaccines, particularly in provinces that had shown a reduction in the uptake.
The Cabinet said it had received a report from the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) indicating that over nine million vaccines have been administered in South Africa to date, with over seven million people partially vaccinated and over four million fully vaccinated.
Gauteng Premier David Makhura said he is looking forward to seeing the start of vaccination of the people aged between 18 and 35. 
"We are going to see a lot of enthusiasm, they have been waiting, knocking at our doors, asking on my social media when are we opening for their age group," said Premier Makhura.
 To date, over nine million vaccines have been administered in South Africa, and Gauteng has so far vaccinated more than 1 048 092 residents against COVID-19.
The process to get vaccinated is easy. Simply visit your nearest vaccination site with your identity document to be registered and vaccinated. 
You can find your closest site from the more than 3 000 vaccination sites across the country at www.sacoronavirus.co.za/active-vaccination-sites.- END ​