Swazi Observer

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PM’S RIOT ACT JUSTIFIED

By Mbongeni Mbingo | 2024-12-13

I am sure the words are still ringing in the ears of Thembisile Gama, the Central Medical Stores (CMS) acting assistant director.

And they should, because quite honestly, the crisis has gone on long enough there should have been heads rolling a long time ago. Yet, here, we are and there is still no sign of the drugs shortage crisis being effectively addressed – let alone diagnosed.

The CMS, of course, is at the centre of this crisis. They are the people who should have long found a way to stop the rot – and demonstrated that they were alive to the impact this has on the broader health crisis in the country by putting in controls to ensure that drugs and medicines stored at the facility were safe and accounted for.

That is the core of the drugs shortage that has plagued our beautiful country for longer than can be imagined. The Prime Minister undertook a tour of health facilities on Wednesday in which he confronted the reality on the ground – which is that at the CMS, sadly, it is still business as usual – and there is nothing to suggest that drugs are not walking out of that place and to the wrong pharmacies.

This is an open secret that even a child is aware of – that the drugs shortage crisis is essentially because of the broader corruption by officials benefitting from this crisis.

Pharmacies, and suppliers, and the mafia that has carefully orchestrated this scandal, are benefitting from this crisis, which is the reason why drugs and medicines are still not finding their way to the patients who need them most, or to the hospitals that are the destination.

So, for each day this happens, the public is paying the price – with death, and of course, money we can’t afford to waste.

That is at the centre of the prime minister’s criticism of the CMS and their officials after an impressive presentation that he felt lacked the fundamental action item – improved controls of the drugs supply.

There is still nothing to suggest people have learned the lesson or that there is an improved appreciation of the challenges that have led to the drugs shortage. Given everything that has happened in this country, that the CMS still hasn’t found a way to stop the drain, is nothing short of a scandal.

Instead, what has transpired this far is a hogwash of a report that really will never amount to a forensic audit, but which of course, everyone knows, is what is the gospel truth for those who have an agenda to benefit from this crisis.

I make no excuses for the CMS of course because they too know the truth, except I can sympathise with Gama because she was parachuted to the CMS in the wake of the drugs shortage crisis – perhaps to arrest the situation, or to put in place controls or to simply just be a new face in an old problem.

Maybe it was to pull wool over our eyes, who knows now, given that we still grapple with theft of drugs.

I sympathise with her though because I am sure she didn’t ask for this and now, here she is, bearing the brunt of a sweet tongue lashing from the prime minister! Of course, time will tell why it was necessary to second her to this mess, without there seeming to be a plan of what exactly the mandate was going to be.

This is perhaps why the prime minister gave the officials a tongue lashing during the tour of the CMS, because all of us who don’t buy into Funduzi’s hypothesis know that the CMS has not been forthcoming, not least by providing us with solutions and a critical understanding of the issues at play leading to the drugs crisis.

For me, they are culpable because they have happily watched as the country has been misled and misinformed, even when the supposed findings of the forensic don’t help the situation in any way.

But, Gama and her colleagues have gone on as though nothing has happened while they have not stopped the rot.

Therein lies the crisis for not just Gama herself, but those who found it proper to second her to such a fine mess kutsi konje what were they looking at!

I know from where I sit why many of us right-thinking and honest individuals who have been following this issue that there is more to this drugs shortage and theft and scandal and skelems why the prime minister would lash out at the CMS – and all those associated with the failure to have this matter resolved.

The simple reason is that it defies all logic why the mess is still obtaining after all has been said and done – and mind you, we have suspended many of the staff at CMS as a measure, which has still not offered anything tangible.

This is to say, either the CMS hasn’t bothered to tackle this challenge or the people there can’t figure it out anyway – or of course, that it is true this whole thing is scapegoating the staff that was wrongly figured as being responsible for the fraud that has been picked up.

At the end of it all, there is a major crisis at CMS but it doesn’t look like anyone knows how to solve it, and therefore, the Cabinet has lost its patience and is demanding action right away.

I am afraid therefore, that the prime minister is right to call for solutions and not merely just lip service, because essentially, parliament has got the short end of the stick with that report that they are so in love with.

Let me not ruin their festive season, by harping on about this report but point out that the bottom line here is that the drugs crisis still persist because we have failed to take the right and meaningful action, and the taxpayers’ money is going down the drain paying for reports that will come to nothing.

The reality for Thembi Gama and her people is that she was parachuted into this controversy to provide a solution and a year on there is no clear direction as to what has been done to ensure that the theft has been stopped.

Instead, we remain not just in the dark as to what the plan is, but the lack of progress in addressing the challenges is really concerning – hard enough for the prime minister to come hard on those who should be leading us out of this quagmire.

Of course, I will sympathise with the acting assistant director for finding herself in this situation, especially at the end of such a tell-off. It is a sobering experience, one that should enable her to ask herself why she is there in the first place, if not entirely just demanding herself to provide the leadership qualities that must have motivated whoever that decided on this recommendation for her to walk into such a chaotic situation.

So, for me, Gama must have come highly recommended to be the right person for the task at hand. More than a year later, the prime minister’s patience has run out. Now it is time to deliver some tangible results – not words. It is time to deliver on the work.

It is time to deliver the drugs where they should be – and that is the little we ask of her.

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