Madam,

In the heart of Southern Africa lies the beautiful Kingdom of Swaziland, now officially known as Eswatini; a land rich in tradition, culture and hope, but beneath the rolling hills and warm smiles, a silent crisis is gripping the nation: A health system on its knees and citizens dying like flies in the shadows of closed clinics and empty dispensaries.

The public health sector, once a lifeline for the nation’s most vulnerable, is crumbling. Hospitals are understaffed, clinics are shutting down and the shelves that once held life-saving medication are bare. Mothers walk for miles with sick children only to find a locked gate. Grandmothers suffering from diabetes or hypertension are turned away because there are no pills, no nurses, no answers, only silence.

Yet, in the midst of this tragedy, the private sector flourishes. Private clinics, equipped with the latest equipment and medications, operate smoothly but at a price that the majority of the population cannot afford. The poor are left to die quietly, their pain hidden behind closed doors, their voices drowned by the ticking of political clocks and the quiet indifference of those in power.

Where is the humanity? Where is the justice? Eswatini is a nation where over 60 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line. In such a country, the collapse of public healthcare is not just a crisis, it is a national betrayal. It is a reminder that the right to health has been sold to the highest bidder, leaving the poor to perish in poverty while the privileged thrive in clinics built for a few.

This is not just a medical emergency. This is a revolutionary cry; a call for justice, for accountability, for a system that serves the people, not just the elite. Every closed clinic, every expired medicine, every death that could have been prevented, is a scar on the conscience of the nation.

How long will we watch our people die without raising our voices?

How many more funerals must we attend before we demand change?

This is a plea to the leadership of Eswatini, to the international community and to every citizen with a beating heart: he must rise, not with violence, but with unity. Not with hate, but with courage. We must demand a healthcare system that puts people before profits, a system that remembers that to be poor should not mean a death sentence.

Let this article not just be words on a page, but a fire in our hearts. A fire that burns for every child who died of a treatable disease, for every elderly soul turned away at the gate, for every family left to mourn in silence.

We are dying, and we must fight, not just to survive, but to live with dignity.

The time is now. Let this be the beginning of a revolution, a revolution for life, for justice, for the souls of Eswatini.

Hospitals are understaffed, clinics are shutting down and the shelves that once held life-saving medication are bare. (Pic: Linkdin/James Terwilliger)