LOBAMBA – Prime Minister Russell Dlamini has clarified that NERCHA and NDMA are not taking over the health sector, but want to assist.
The prime minister, through a report that he presented in Parliament recently, proposed that the procurement of drugs for public hospitals and clinics, be handed over to the National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS (NERCHA) and the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA). However, some Members of Parliament (MPs) are not supporting the proposal, stating that the health sector should be empowered instead.
Ntondozi MP Peter Ngwenya said he was not supporting the proposal, stating that there was a lot of things going wrong in the health sector, but instead of taking some of its core mandates from it, it should be empowered. Lobamba Lomdzala MP Marwick Khumalo submitted that the shift should be done in harmony because as Parliament, they were not going to support something that was done by Cabinet pulling in different directions. He said that some may support the proposal, but not all of them were going to, especially because some Cabinet members were seemingly not supporting the proposal.
During the debate of the Deputy Prime Minister’s (DPM) first quarter performance report for the financial year 2025/26, MPs lobbied the DPM, Thulisile Dladla to reject the proposal to have the NDMA take the responsibility of drugs procurement in the country.
However, Dlamini explained that the intention was not to take over the health sector, but the two entities were being roped in to assist. He said that the Ministry of Health had been given a full year to mitigate the drugs shortage crisis currently obtaining but that has not happened.
“We can’t, as government, be seen not doing something about the health crisis and it is on that basis that we are roping in the two entities, to try and change the situation. We are not taking over the health sector,” he said.
More details in today’s paper.
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