WHERE IS STANDARDS AUTHORITY?

Sir,

The selling and marketing of unregulated ‘health products’ in this country has become commonplace. The arrival of COVID-19 only made it worse; we have seen a proliferation of herbal teas, spices, tablets and all kinds of quack concoctions that promise all sorts of miracles, from cleaning blood to preventing cancer. Not only have some of these products not stood up to regulatory scrutiny and pose a danger to those who take them, but they are also sold for hundreds and in some cases thousands of Emalangeni, fleecing our people.

Product

One such product is a brown concoction sold as D.I. NONI by DynaPharm. Two ‘agents’ of DynaPharm are being prosecuted for the illegal practice of medicine in Senegal after the sudden death of a woman who had previously taken DynaPharm products (https://senego.com/deces-dune-patiente-a-touba-le-chef-dagence-dynapharm-et-un-infirmier-deferes_1158060.html). Another product that has been selling like hotcakes is called STC30, the distribution of which has been prohibited in Botswana by the country’s Medicines Regulatory Authority as it has not been registered. Proponents of these products might argue that not registering a product with the relevant authorities amounts to a mere procedural misstep and says nothing about the potential dangers or dare I say benefits of the products themselves. This argument holds no water ,however, simply because if your product is as efficacious as you claim it is when marketing it, then you should not fear putting it up to regulatory scrutiny. The proliferators of these products are also cheating the national kitty of its dues as these products are often sold informally, from hand-to-hand and are beyond the reach of the tax authorities.


NOTE: In an effort to afford them the Right to Reply, a call was made to the Eswatini Standards Authority on January 24, 2021. We were given an email address to send the letter to, however, there has been no reply forthcoming.  

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