Zimbabwe in a quandary over what to do with pharmacies selling drugs in US dollars

If our NatPharm just goes on its own without the backing of Indian companies, they will be required to pay deposits and it will take about four months before we get any drugs.  If we engage the Indian Government to link us with their equivalent NatPharm there, it will be easy because they will not be requested to pay deposits.  Secondly, the drugs as we were promised by the Vice President of India, he said he was going to give us about 100 tonnes of drugs and we are still waiting for them.

We have also engaged the World Health Organisation (WHO), they helped us during the cholera outbreak.  They gave us drugs worth $3 million, now they are also helping us.  They are in their meetings because we told them that it is now an emergency in Zimbabwe.  Yesterday I was with the Head of WHO in Zimbabwe and he sends a message to their Headquarters in Congo.  We have also engaged their Director General who is in Geneva, I met him when I went for a meeting and he has understood that and they also want to help us.  Their hearts are pure when it comes to helping Zimbabwe.

There are also other plans that we have, our RBZ Governor, Mangudya is also trying his best, each time he gets some foreign currency, he channels it towards our direction.  The most important thing is that we are pleading with the owners of the pharmacies that they should charge their drugs with the money that is available.  Also the wholesalers, that they should not charge pharmacy retailers using currency that is not available.  Otherwise all of us are fighting so that everything goes well and drugs are at our disposal at affordable prices.  Thank you Madam President.

+HON. SEN. PHUTI: Thank you Madam President. I would like to thank the Minister for the explanation that he gave but he did not answer the question directly.  My question is, whilst we are waiting for India and others who are willing to explain, are the pharmacies doing a legal thing selling medication in US dollars?  Whilst we are waiting for things to stabilise, how are the pharmacies supposed to be selling their medication?

*THE MINISTER OF HEALTH AND CHILD CARE (HON. DR. O. MOYO): Thank you Madam President, the question from the Senator is very pertinent and very good giving us plans on how we can move on.  We are all aware of what is happening and we are also fighting this it. As a Ministry, we have engaged the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance.  I think you saw what happened on the fuel crisis, some garages had their licences revoked. We also contemplate doing the same but we have to be wise on that and we do want pharmacies to complain that we have revoked their licences because of US dollars. On the other hand we are saying US dollar is another currency which we can use to trade in Zimbabwe.  We have engaged the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Finance on the way forward.

*HON. SEN. MAVETERA: I think the issue at the moment, is we have got – if it is true which we believe; Government has given money to pharmaceuticals to get medication and that medication is already on the market and it is being sold in US dollars and that is tax payers’ money and people are not accessing that medication.  So as much as we appreciate those other arrangements to alleviate this problem, we want to know what is being done right now to make sure people access medication and they do not die because we have tax payers’ money that has been used.  We want to know, they have got the statistics of who got the money and all the pharmacies who are selling in US dollars.  Even if they got that money, it is translated to bond coins where it is multiplied by four, which is actually profiteering at the expense of the lives of the citizens when they are using tax payers’ money.  So, what is the immediate solution? We want this Senate to be appraised by the Hon. Minister. It thank you Madam President.

Continued next page

(420 VIEWS)