This was first pointed out nearly four years ago, but the problem of the kingdom’s inadequate medical services has not been addressed.
Safety at the airport is
one of the many issues ignored by King Mswati who, as sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch, who is the driving force behind the airport’s construction. No
needs analysis was done before building of the airport started in 2003 and no
business plan exists for the operation of the airport. No commercial flights in
or out of the airport are likely to take place in the foreseeable future as no
local or international airline has signed up to use the airport, which has cost
an estimated E3 billion (US$300 million) so far to build.
The airport, formerly known
as Sikhuphe, was officially opened by King Mswati on 7 March 2014.
Musa Hlophe, the coordinator of the
Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO), first
raised the question of safety in November 2010. Writing in his regular
column in the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in the kingdom, he asked
what would happen if an aircraft with (say) 400 passengers on board crashed at
the airport?
He wrote, ‘Assuming that we
expanded our country’s ambulance fleet to 200 and each one was able to get to
Sikhupe within one hour, how could our hospitals manage with hundreds of extra
patients in one day? The closest hospital will be Good Shepherd at Siteki which
is not exactly state of the art and the nearest major hospitals are in Manzini
and Mbabane. They are already all on their knees, struggling to cope with our
current crises of TB, HIV&AIDS.
‘Do our hospitals have a
plan to cope with maybe 400 foreign people all needing bed spaces urgently? Do
we have enough doctors and nurses trained in accident and emergency and most
importantly do we have the necessary medicines, equipment and blood for this
level of disaster? In a country that cannot even supply its own citizens with
the proper drugs to prevent a child dying from rabies because of the bite of
one dog - I doubt it. I doubt they could cope with fifty people never mind four
hundred.
‘Sikhuphe’s business model
to attract major foreign passenger carriers is already flawed because of the
competition from four other regional airports within half a day’s drive -
Kruger National in Mbombela (Nelspruit), Maputo in Mozambique, King Shaka in
Durban and, of course, OR Tambo in Johannesburg. But what really stands out for
me, as someone who has worked for businesses for a long time, is what little
proper risk analysis has gone on here. Can you imagine an airline that wanted
to carry rich western investors and tourists that would risk the lives of
hundreds of its passengers? Can you imagine them ignoring the lack of medical
systems, equipment, personnel or facilities to cope with even a relatively
minor crash that required treatment of only a quarter of their passengers and
staff?’
‘If we adapt our medical systems
to meet this need, will we take resources away from our families who are living
with and dying from HIV&AIDS? So I ask a question that does not seem to
have been considered in public before. How will the disaster plan for Sikhupe
affect the provision of health care for the rest of us? Will the health budget
be diverted from the families of our sick and dying to allow for the imagined
needs of strangers who will only stay a few hours in our country? Has Minister
Xaba and his team even considered it - have they thought it through? What do
they say to the foreign investors?’
See also
AIRPORT MOVE WILL ‘BANKRUPT AIRLINE’
KING’S AIRPORT HAS NO LICENCE
FANCIFUL OPENING OF KING’S AIRPORT
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