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SWAZILAND:
No hospital care for cancer patients
MBABANE,
24 June 2011 (IRIN) – More than 300 Swazi cancer patients being treated in
South African hospitals have been repatriated according to Swaziland the
Cancer Association of Swaziland, (CANASWA), after the government of King
Mswati III could not meet their medical costs.
Swaziland is experiencing acute financial pressures. “The entire fleet
of [government] cars, except for emergency vehicles” and those used by
the security services, has been grounded, said an official who declined to
be identified. The other exception is transport for Mswati, sub-Saharan
Africa’s last absolute monarch.
The government is the country’s largest employer. Social services are being
cut and public
servants may not be paid after the end of June 2011. One fuel supplier
alone is owed R17 million (US$2.42 million) and the lack of transport is
constraining the activities of government personnel from agricultural field
officers to health service providers, the official said.
The Ministry of Agriculture reported on 23 June that there is a 29,000 ton
shortfall in the annual maize requirement – the country’s staple food – of
about 114,000 tons, which will be filled by imports, but did not say how
this will be financed.
No chemotherapy
Most of the cancer patients in South Africa were recipients of a special
fund for the poor – in the absence of a national health system – but Health
Minister Benedict Xaba told parliament recently the fund was exhausted.
“Unfortunately, we do not have the chemotherapy equipment to truly
treat these patients,” Timothy Vilakati, from CANASWA, told IRIN.
“Normally, we refer such patients to South Africa, but that has been
suspended because of government’s economic crisis.”
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 What we do is provide pain therapy. We have the drugs, like
morphine, which we administer at the patients’ homes
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The
Swaziland Hospice at Home, located in the industrial town of Matsapha,
about 30km east of the capital, Mbabane has been assisting. “What we
do is provide pain therapy. We have the drugs, like morphine, which we
administer at the patients’ homes. Most of our financing has come from
government, so we really must look more to our international donors,”
Vilakati said.
Finance Minister Majozi Sithole said a loan application to the African
Development Bank had been declined. South Africa’s deputy finance minister,
Nhlanhla Nene, has confirmed that Swaziland approached them for a loan, but
not the amount requested. South Africa is struggling with extremely high
unemployment.
“Any consideration of a bail-out must be linked to the demand of a new
and democratic government,” said the Congress of South African Trade
Unions (COSATU), South Africa’s largest trade union federation and alliance
partner of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) – and a
staunch supporter of Swaziland’s pro-democracy movement.
Protests
Dimpho Motsamai, a researcher in the Africa Conflict Prevention
Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, a Pretoria-based
think-tank, told IRIN that during pro-democracy protests in Swaziland
earlier in 2011, South Africa called for dialogue and restraint from the
security forces.
The largest anti-government
protests in years took place on 12 April 2011 – the 38th anniversary of
a decree issued by Mswati’s predecessor, King Sobhuza II, which imposed a
state of emergency and banned political parties – sparked by the
construction of “vanity projects” like a new $1 billion
international airport when there are overwhelming social needs.
In January 2011 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made a number of
recommendations to stave off economic disaster in donor-dependent
Swaziland. Chief among them was that the bloated public sector workforce be
cut to a more suitable size.
The government announced that it would cut 7,000 public service jobs during
2011, but so far has cut none. Even without the cuts, Swaziland’s
unemployment rate stands at 40 percent and it is estimated that about a
third of the country’s one million population depend on the proceeds of
public sector salaries.
“Government offered civil servants voluntary retirement pension
packages, but no one wants to take government up on its offer because we
don’t believe there will be money to pay us these pensions,” Anthony
Dlamini, an accountant with a government ministry, told IRIN.
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People are suffering – we can no longer say we will worry
tomorrow
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Attempts to trim salaries were
also being rebuffed by trade unions. A three-day strike this week by
teachers protesting salary cuts and government spending priorities was
suspended by the Industrial Court, but is far from resolved.
Income from the Southern
African Customs Union (SACU) has provided around 75 percent of
government revenues according to some estimates, but this has declined in
recent years, putting acute financial pressure on the public purse.
SACU, comprising Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland, is
the world oldest customs union. It applies a common set of tariffs and
disproportionately distributes the revenue to member states, providing a
lifeline that ensures the economic survival of landlocked Swaziland and
Lesotho.
“Many Swazis have family in South Africa. Many of us also carry South
African passports. If things continue to deteriorate, it is easy for us to
reside with our kin there,” said Bethel Simelane, a textile worker in
Matsapha.
“We all wonder how we are going to survive financially, and how bad
things will get,” said Bethel Simelane’s sister, Thembi. “People
are suffering – we can no longer say we will worry tomorrow.”
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