Where was Minister Masebo when Magwende committed The alleged crime?
By John Phiri
Zambia is a very funny country because most of its population operates without conviction or any kind of loyalty to ideology, group or personal relationship.
Before you think we are advocating adherence to personal friendship regardless, read up to the end of this article.
There are two simple questions that have arisen following the sacking of Dr George Magwende from his job as Permanent Secretary in charge of Administration, at the Ministry of Health, and his subsequent “interrogation” at the Anti Corruption Commission.
The first one is where was the Minister of Health when Magwende was doing what he is accused of having done without following procedure?
This is not a frivolous question. Minister of Health Sylvia Masebo is credited with personally having halted the process of acquiring essential drugs for public health facilities because she did not like the personalities behind companies that were in the process of being contracted to supply.
She then ordered that a fresh tender be advertised, a decision that has to date resulted in the government struggling to meet demand for drugs in public health facilities.
The persistent shortage of drugs had its consistent whistleblower, Dr Brian Sampa, who ensured the shortage of drugs was a news item nearly every week, until state agents engineered his ouster from being President of the now moribund and compromised Resident Doctors Association of Zambia(RDAZ).
President Hakainde Hichilema, instead of taking objective action to verify whether or not there has been a shortage of drugs in public health facilities, instead went to the Ministry of Health Headquarters to endorse the seemingly untouchable Masebo’s mismanagement of affairs at the Ministry.
He could not as much as bring himself to censure Masebo in any way for the shortage of drugs which Ministry of Health senior officials attributed directly to her refusal to allow supply of drugs by companies on her personal blacklist.
So, how does a Minister who cancelled a drugs procurement tender fail to have noticed such things as the $100 million prefab health facilities contract?
Second question: is this the same Magwende who was fired from the Prisons and Correctional Services for being perceived to have helped Hichilema during the time of his detention at Mukobeko Maximum Prison on trumped up charges of treason?
For those of you who have forgotten, here is a reminder of the story in 2017:
“CHIPOLOPOLO team doctor George Magwende has been dropped from his position almost three months after Zambia Reports first reported the scheme.
On August 24, 2017, Zambia Reports revealed that the Football Association of Zambia was set to sack Magwende for allegedly ‘kissing’ UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema at Mukobeko Correctional Facility where he operated as Senior Assistant Commissioner in charge of health services. Magwende was retired from his post at prisons that August.
The physician was one of only two Zambians holding a diploma in sports medicine, a qualification mandatory for all national team physicians.
Magwende was allegedly seen talking to opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema at Mukobeko Maximum Prison.
Sources stated that the brief meeting between Magwende and Hichilema led the Patriotic Front government to retire the former from the Zambia Prisons service in national interest.
All this would be funny if politics was not so ruinous of young professional careers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
John Phiri is Former Editor In-Chief of The Times of Zambia Newspaper. The views expressed herein are solely his.