It is the latest in the long line of cases of the
kingdom’s health services grinding to a halt because of government mismanagement
of the economy.
The Times of
Swaziland reported on Wednesday (26 September 2018) that patients only had
apples and juice at Mbabane Government Hospital. It said bills to food suppliers had not been paid. It was
unclear how much money was owed.
Relatives and friends of some of the patients have taken
in food for them. There are 500 beds at the hospital.
The newspaper reported Dr Simon Zwane, Principal
Secretary at the Ministry of Health, said there was ‘no food for the patients
because the ministry had not paid the catering company that provides food for
the hospital’.
The public health service across Swaziland (recently
renamed Eswatini by absolute monarch King Mswati III) is collapsing because
the government has not paid suppliers.
On 14 September 2018 it was reported at least six
children in Swaziland had died from diarrhoea and many more were sick
because the government was broke and could not pay for vaccines. It would cost
US$6 for the vaccine to immunise a child.
Medicines of all sorts have
run out in public hospitals and health clinics across Swaziland. Nurses
have been protesting to draw attention to the crisis.
In July 2018 it was
reported that Swazipharm, Swaziland’s largest distributor of pharmaceutical
products and medical equipment to the healthcare system in the kingdom,
could not buy new stocks
because the Ministry of Health had not paid its bill. Swazipharm Sales and
Marketing Manager Cindy Stankoczi confirmed it had cut the supply of drugs to
local health institutions.
Long before Swazipharm’s
announcement medicines, including vaccines against polio and tuberculosis had run out in many government hospitals and
clinics because drug suppliers had not been paid. In June 2017, Senator Prince
Kekela told parliament that at least five people had died as a result of the
drug shortages. About US$18
million was reportedly owed
to drug companies in May 2017.
In June 2018 it was
revealed there were only
12 working public ambulances in the whole of Swaziland to serve 1.1
million people because the government failed to maintain them. It had bought no
new ambulances since 2013.
In his budget
speech in March 2018 Finance
Minister Martin Dlamini said Government owed E3.1bn (US$230 million) in total
to its suppliers for goods and services.
In June 2018 it was reported that children
collapsed with hunger in their school because the government had not
paid for food for them. The kingdom had previously been warned to expect
children to starve because the government had not paid its suppliers
for the food that is distributed free of charge at schools. The shortage was
reported to be widespread across the kingdom.
Meanwhile, King Mswati III
who rules Swaziland as one of the world’s last absolute monarchs wore
a watch
worth US$1.6 million and a suit
beaded with diamonds weighing 6 kg, at his 50th birthday
party in April. Days earlier he took delivery of his second private jet, a A340
Airbus, that after VIP upgrades
reportedly cost US$30 million. He received E15 million (US$1.2
million) in cheques, a
gold dining room suite and a gold
lounge suite among his birthday gifts.
Seven in ten of Swaziland’s
1.1 million population live in abject poverty with incomes less than the
equivalent of US$2 per day. The King has 13 palaces. He also owns
fleets of top-of-the range Mercedes and BMW cars. His family regularly travel
the world on shopping
trips spending millions of dollars each time.
See also
Six Children Die in Swaziland in Diarrhoea Outbreak.
Vaccines Short Since Government Has Not Paid Suppliers
Swaziland Nurses Picket, Drugs Run Out, Lives Put
at Risk as Government Fails to Pay Suppliers
Medicine
Shortage: Five Die
Swazi King Parties While Children Die
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2014/08/swazi-king-parties-while-children-die.html
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