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SO MUCH INSENSITIVITY

16/11/2017 08:23:00 By Vusi Kunene

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Those in government have lost the spirit of ubuntu. It is with a heavy heart that I am forced to comment on this.

I have written about it and thought it would be sorted but reality struck me this week. The lack of medication in hospitals is having far reaching consequences. I feel it is now an emergency that there is no medication in our hospitals. There is just a lack of other working tools. An injured guy was turned away and told to go to other health centres because there were no bandages at the hospital. One elderly woman was discharged from hospital because there was no way her blood sugar problem could be attended to as there was no medication. It was painful for the elderly woman because she was even given wrong medication in a container of the correct drug. Last Friday another lady was lamenting that she was going to a funeral of a relative who had passed away due to cancer as the Phalala Fund was unable to help patients referred to South Africa. I then wondered if government was content with what is happening to ordinary people. Or they are not aware of what is happening in hospitals?

I would not be surprised if they do not know because they hardly go to the hospitals as they enjoy the privilege of a well-paid medical aid and they go to the best doctors and receive the best healthcare there is. To demonstrate that, even the head of government is not embarrassed to tell everyone that he is going to South Africa for medical attention. So why would he bother with the state of our hospitals because he is enjoying the best medical care outside the country as he can afford it. Like the prime minister, the Minister of Health is always gallivanting across the world without a care about what is happening in hospitals. I am saying she is gallivanting because her primary responsibility is the health of the Swazi nation. She cannot be busy attending meetings and seminars outside the country while ignoring her primary responsibility. Does this mean she is not aware of what is happening in hospitals or she is behaving like she does not know? If she knew I am sure she would have done something by now. For her ministry to say, through the chief pharmacist, that there is no shortage of drugs in hospitals when there is a crisis tells me that she is not aware of what is happening in the hospitals.

It is also mischievous of the chief pharmacist to say there is no lack of drugs in our hospital when the people who the hospitals are supposed to serve are suffering because of this lack. Where is her conscience? The lack of sensitivity is not only with the Ministry of Health but with the Minister of Finance as well. I felt pity for the wife of the Minister of finance when she said her husband was stressed by the budget. He may be stressed but he is not going a good job.
Why is he giving us a budget that does not cater for the health of the nation? He is the one who is supposed to prioritise health in the country as provided for in Article 16 of the African Charter on Human People’s Rights. This Article provides that individuals have a right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health. The State shall take necessary measures to protect the health of its people and ensure that they receive medical attention when they are sick. So to go to hospital and receive no drugs does not suffice. The Ministry of Finance should give a budget that will make sure that drugs are available in hospitals. If money is squandered by the Ministry of Health then he should say so. They all say they have collective responsibility in Cabinet, therefore he is responsible. To give more money to the army and then health has a shortfall is insensitivity.

I will not leave our House of Assembly out of this. They are the very same people who are supposed to not allow a budget that does not cater for health to pass. Members of Parliament are the ones that Cabinet is responsible to but they are soft on Cabinet when it comes to the crisis in hospitals. They have suspended ministers when they felt their interest was jeopardised but they are doing nothing concerning the Minister of Health. When they were banned at SBIS they suspended the minister but they give a pat on the back to the Minister of Health because they are insensitive to the suffering of poor Swazis. They have failed the Tinkhundla System of Governance and I now feel we need to explore other avenues. They are just insensitive to the needs of the masses.