BY MBONO MDLULI
LOBAMBA – Members of Parliament (MPs) want whoever is responsible for drug shortage to be arrested.
The MPs said this today in the House of Assembly during the 2023/24 performance debate of the Ministry of Health. The MPs said this based on a report by Auditor General (AG) Timothy Matsebula, which is said to have unearthed the cause of the shortage of drugs in the country’s health facilities.
Mbabane East MP Welcome Dlamini called upon Minister of Health Mduduzi Matsebula to ensure that people fingered in the shortage of drugs were arrested. Dlamini was interested in hearing if Cabinet had approved the report or not. Dlamini said there was the Prince Sikelela report, which also had similar findings with the AG’s report. However, nothing was done regarding that report.
MPs Sicelo Jele (LaMgabhi), Joseph Souza (Lugongolweni), Shawnette Henwood (Shiselweni I), and Lungile Mamba (Shiselweni Region MP) during the Ministry of Health debate.
“The implementation of the report will show us whether the Ministry and the entire Government is serious about uprooting corruption in the Ministry or not. If it is not implemented, then we will go back to MP Masilela’s submission, which was to the effect that the Ministry of Health is a joke,” Dlamini said.
Sithobela MP Mancoba Sihlongonyane pleaded with the Minister to bring back integrity and good image within the health sector. Sihlongonyane said several years back, nurses, for instance, were held in high regard because they were seen as people who saved lives.
However, these days, Sihlongonyane said when people in the society saw nurses, they thought that they could be the ones who stole the drugs, causing people to die as a result of not getting help. Sihlongonyane said the media reports in which the AG said there were untouchable people who could not be arrested was disturbing. He believed there were no people who were untouchable such that people could be left to die. “We are not jealous of other people’s statuses, but they should account for playing with other people’s lives,” he said.
Somntongo MP Sandile Nxumalo, who was chairing the debate, suggested that the public health unit within the Ministry of Health should be revived. He believed such a move would help in reducing the problems facing the Ministry.
