The Ministry of Health posted on its social media page an incredibly tone-deaf message in response to a story our newspaper published this past week. The story was on the deepening health crisis, revealing the extent to which things have really gone bad at the Mbabane Government Hospital.
It exposed that the government hospital, which has collapsed under the weight of the drugs and medicines shortage crisis, is now failing to service its patients. This is also, sadly, not new.
There are many horrifying tales of how desperately serious the situation has become and so on the face of it, the hospital is reported to be attending 50 people a day, which should be seen as just another story in the lives of Emaswati – in addition to being left in wards helplessly for weeks.
This tragic collapse of our health sector has been well documented by this newspaper, and I have spent months writing about it; how it started; where it went wrong and essentially, why that sham of a report MPs brandished about every time they wanted to score political points will never be the solution.
All what this newspaper – and in particular this column – has received as a response has been typical of people who stand to lose and be exposed, which is shifting the blame, calling us all sorts of names and then blowing hot air.
Meanwhile, things are getting serious at the clinics and hospitals with deaths being recorded week on week because this country’s health system has been captured by a dangerous cabal, that no longer has any conscience left to at least feel the pain of the families whose loved ones are dying or are being denied access to health services.
Of course, if you read this column closer you know this drill – and the fact that just last month I warned that we would not relent on raising this issue as a major crisis that needs the voice of this newspaper to shout about – until the Anti-Corruption Commission stops being such a toothless dog!
We’ve long been fed the mantra that we are waiting for a bhabuli to be arrested by the Anti-Corruption Commission to demonstrate its sharp teeth. But that was longer than 15 years ago in the times of Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini.
No wonder, then, those who have captured the health system are still out there pulling the strings unafraid of any arrest, no matter what the ACC tries to do. They walk the streets, read this piece and laugh among themselves because they are untouchable.
Which is why last week’s story on the plight of the patients at Mbabane Government Hospital was so important to understand the extent to which the situation has got worse. It is the kind of story that should concern every well-meaning member of our society – that enough is enough – and challenge those at Hospital Hill to stop lip service and provide solutions.
Detached
Perhaps, this is the story that should get the Prime Minister off his seat and ring some changes at the Ministry of Health. And given the response by the ministry, it is clear that the people who should be the first to understand this situation better are living in some ivory tower, completely detached from this reality that is confronting the average Liswati.
According to the people running social media pages, things are not that bad and we are blowing things out of proportion! The ministry could only accuse the newspaper of being sensational – because to them this is okay.
The mere fact that people are being made to wait for hours and then told to go back is just a joke to them – and we should be okay with it!
Such arrogance displayed on that page tells why we are in this mess in the first place – because the people in that ministry are not just tone-deaf, but they are shockingly clueless and arrogant in the midst of such a terrible tragedy.
In essence, whoever runs that page and posted that message should be out of a job as you read this, not for their misplaced arrogance, but for this shameful cockiness that has no place in public service. It comes off as an insult to the thousands of people who have suffered and lost their loved ones.
By posting this tone-deaf statement, the ministry only succeeded in exposing where the problem lies; the people in the ministry have no clue and no sense of responsibility for what is happening in the hospitals right now.
Anyone working at the ministry has no business telling us the situation is not as bad as the media puts it. “How can a hospital this big, with so many departments/clinics, service only 50 clients a day,” the irresponsible person wrote.
Actually, the message on the social media page starts like this: “It is concerning that an entire newspaper can just lie to the nation in this manner. This is gross sensationalism.”
At the height of this crisis, this is the worst that anyone who is responsible for such a crisis can even dare to utter. It sends a message that someone out there is taking this dangerously lightly. They think that the crisis should be a thing of numbers – big ones – before they can start taking it seriously? Like wow!
The ministry has been failing to provide just drugs and medicine for three years and people have been dying as a result – and someone at the ministry thinks they can play games!
The least they could be doing would be to apologise to the public for this fragrant disregard for service delivery. People are being consigned to death and someone has the audacity to stand up and accuse the media of being sensational!
Even if we were to assume, for a second, the ministry was servicing just over 52 people a day, would it make a difference? Would it mean that the crisis does not exist or that it has been resolved? Would it suddenly make things better?
Would a little more than 50 patients a day suggest that the ministry’s social media manager or admin – as they are called – is justified in shouting at the top of his/her voice that the figures are not accurate?
Or, would it not be right to swallow their ego and understand that this is not the time for such behaviour and attitude?
Struggling
Would it hurt or harm anyone to be sensible to the majority of people who are struggling to get the medication they desperately need because things are not only about the few times drugs are available in hospitals?
It is purely that for years people are being denied access to health services and treatment; nurses are desperately crying out for help and have already said all they do is just pray for patients these days!
What does it matter to us that there are a few more available drugs on some days and not on every other day? What does it matter to us that some admin person thinks that we should make a distinction between a few numbers to make the drugs crisis go away?
The thing about managing social media platforms is that those entrusted with it have to show that they have the emotional intelligence to not shoot anyhow; that they are people who understand better the impact of every word they post and sentence they build.
If social media pages were to be left to imbeciles, then the world would surely be nuts!
And we all know what happens when social media people get it wrong, but we shall leave it to the minister and his principal secretary – if they have the stomach for it.
For now, however, it is beginning to look like there is no leadership at the ministry, which cannot be true if there is a minister and a principal secretary at the helm.
But, if what we hear is anything to go by – that even senior officials at the ministry refuse to subordinate themselves whenever they are called to – then this behaviour by the social media people at the ministry should not be surprising.
In the words of Bheki Makhubu, bayatentela nje ka Health, which explains why we are in this quagmire.
There is no order. There is no sense of panic. There is no sense of jeopardy. Just people knowing no one will dare lift their finger – kuyabonakala!
Poor Khanya Mabuza, he was thrown into this deep end with the sharks and told to swim. Perhaps they should have warned him that he would sink if he did not know how to swim or swim with the sharks.
As it stands, even the minister’s tough talk he gave at Sibaya has come to haunt him, because along the corridors at Health, they laugh out loud and say that he said he would solve the crisis.
The reality – not that of the people behind the social media pages – is that we have no chance arresting this situation if Funduzi keeps getting their tenders, despite submitting a sham of a report that even the Prime Minister says is unhelpful and difficult to implement.
But it seems this is only for those of us who can feel the pain and know of this crisis, than the people inside the Ministry of Health – who all think that this is a power game. Probably, they are yet to experience it.
Maybe until their relatives need emergency help and there are no drugs and no one to help.
Sad thing is, we can’t wish it on them.
It is now up to the minister to show that he has what it takes to deliver on his promise, because the clock is now ticking.
Sebangangawe Mkholo.
It’s time to show people who wears the pants around that building. Or else, at Siphocosini.
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