By Jacob Mafume
The Zanu PF government never runs out of shockers, the expired drugs scandal is yet another bizzare episode of a cruel and uncaring leadership.
The issue of expired drugs is just but a manifestation of expired leadership. It boggles the mind to even imagine a government delighting in procurement of expired consignments of medicine placing the lives millions at risk.
Expired drugs may cause new infections, maybe be toxic and can cause death. No one must use such drugs.
It also raises a lot of governance questions. Is it a matter of someone using tax payers’ money to procure expired drugs? Or incompetency which has resulted in drugs expiring before they reach medical centres.
There is a possibility of embezzlement of funds then a display of an expired consignment as proof of delivery.
All these are answers that are due to the public in a delicate matter of this nature, the murky operations of government can no longer be the route to take. There must be clarity, transparency and accountability.
In any case the government should have communicated an impending drugs shortage, not play politics and not give citizens a window to create a buffer against this mediocrity.
Answers must be provided otherwise this episode remains scandalous and criminal.
Those involved in the whole scheme must face Justice, the issue of drugs is delicate, the mere reason why headlines were awash with the sale of an unregistered drug recently.
Now those who are supposed to be at the centre of regulation are the ones violating the rules. The lives of Zimbabweans are in jeopardy, it is clear that the desperation in government to prove some semblance of sanity is sky high. The attempt to sanitize this scandal is dangerous and contemptuous.
The citizen must be very angry, Zanu PF has reached the limits. Its mediocrity and lack of care cannot be allowed to continue.
Jacob Mafume, MDC National Spokesperson
