BLACKLISTING WON’T BE ENOUGH

Just a week after National Commissioner (NATCOM) of Police Vusi Manoma Masango, revealed that the crime rate in Eswatini had gone up by 15 per cent this year; two ATMs were bombed and over E1 million stolen.

As we are all aware by now, this happened in Mpaka in the early hours of Friday morning, specifically around 1am. The police have been praised for acting swiftly, resulting in four suspects being rounded up shortly thereafter and the cash recovered. I must say, it is commendable to see the NATCOM himself leaving his comfortable office in Mbabane and driving down to the Lubombo Region to assess the situation and give updates to concerned members of the public. It was alleged that some of the criminals involved in this crime were from South Africa. Incidentally, this occurred at around the same time as the South African Police Service (SAPS) shot dead eight people suspected of planning to rob a shop owned by a foreigner.

This happened in Esikhawini in KwaZulu-Natal when the police intercepted the alleged robbers who opened fire, resulting in a shootout. Back in Eswatini, this being the festive season, criminals out there are planning more heists and it was good to see the police showing their intentions early on. In his speech at the end-of-year crime prevention campaign in Matsanjeni a week ago, the NATCOM had said that crime continued to instill fear in our communities, affecting the quality of life and threatening the economy. Indeed, crime has become a way of life around here. Some immoral people have made it their means of survival while others live with the fear of knowing that at any time, they could become victims. Now, statistics, by their nature, never mean much unless broken down.

In the case of overall crime statistics, for example, the 15 per cent increase Masango was taking about means that 6 243 more people became victims of crime between January and November this year, compared to the same period last year. Over the same period in 2023, at least 42 209 criminal cases were reported. This year, the reports have increased to 48 452.
Looking at these statistics, I wondered what per centage of them were for white collar crime. The country seems to be lagging in dealing with this type of crime, yet it is the main driver of corruption. We addressed the Ecsponet issue last week but there is also the controversial Funduzi Forensics Report into the acquisition and distribution of medicine to public health facilities in Eswatini.

Parliament adopted the consultant’s report last week and called for the arrest of all the individuals involved.The evidence is all there, as Members of Parliament (MPs) rightly observed.
Many emaSwati have died as a result of the man-made shortage of medical drugs and supplies in our hospitals. The Funduzi Report lays bare all the details of how the taxpayer was shortchanged by a syndicate of corrupt people in almost all the stages of the supply chain.

Healthcare

For over a decade, it has become the norm for public health facility dispensaries to have half-empty shelves. As this was happening, the corrupt players lined their pockets with loads of cash while the ordinary citizen who should have enjoyed quality healthcare had two options: Die or seek expensive medical care in private hospitals here and in South Africa.
Obviously, most fell on the former category because in Eswatini, the latter can only be afforded by a few families. The consultant whose report was finally adopted by Parliament last week had been tasked with investigating the entire cycle of ordering, purchasing, payment, delivery and supply of medicine and drugs to public health facilities.

The report revealed the web of corruption involving government officers, suppliers and some Central Medical Stores (CMS) staffers. The names, facts and figures are all in the report. Among other shocking details, the report revealed how some officials in the Ministry of Health were treated to fully-paid flights, holidays and expeditions outside the country by medical drug suppliers they were colluding with in robbing the taxpayer. After adopting the report, Members of Parliament (MPs) called for immediate action towards arresting the implicated men and women because all the evidence was there. They cited both the REPS and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) as the parties expected to spring into action.

In the past week, the Funduzi report was back in the news when we were reminded that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had recommended that implicated medical drug suppliers should be blacklisted. Adoption of the report means that this and other recommendations should now be implemented. This is where it gets interesting for the casual observer, as most emaSwati expect that nothing will happen. Even MPs held a dim view of what is likely to happen now. While debating the Funduzi Report before it was adopted, they said maybe it was high time government admitted that it was failing to deal with corruption. For his part, Minister for Health Mduduzi Matsebula, told MPs that since 2003, there had been a few forensic audits into the same issue.

However, none of the recommendations made had ever been implemented. This time around, Matsebula is at the helm and is one of the people expected to ensure that, the ‘nkwe’ spirit prevails and the recommendations are implemented. He has openly declared willingness to implement recommendations around the report and asked auditors to assist with evidence.
Well, Mr Minister, it has already been stated that all the evidence is in the same report whose copy you have in your possession. It is now time to start working. That said, blacklisting the implicated suppliers would send a strong message to others involved in supplying medical drugs or even other commodities to government. It would make it clear that the time to tolerate corruption is up.

However, it would not be enough without the arrest of all implicated businesspeople, civil servants and fingered CMS staff members, among others. If this does not happen, we should kiss goodbye to any chance of a turnaround in the medical drug scandal that has made some unscrupulous people rich while condemning helpless emaSwati to early graves.  

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