By Zweli Martin Dlamini

MBABANE: Khanya Mabuza, the newly appointed Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Health,became emotional as he narrated how corruption within the Ministry resulted to death of innocent citizens amid shortage of drugs.

This was during an exclusive interview with Swaziland News on Thursday morning, where he was asked to disclose what he was doing to urgently address the health crisis amid deaths in government hospitals, PS Mabuza is part of the King’s delegation at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in NewYork.

The Principal Secretary became emotional after this journalist showed him part of the evidence substantiating how Kereem Ashraf’s SwaziPharm Wholesalers defrauded government about R6million.

The PS was then warned by this journalist not to share the evidence as this publication was about to release an investigate story exposing the syndicate that was published later on the day.

“Eish, this is painful mani,I don’t even know why I am seeing this because people are dying because of this corruption.I won’t share, in fact I’m deleting it now on my phone,” said the PS who was then overcome by emotions.

The PS further said, the Ministry was busy analysing payments for suppliers to try and pay some of the genuine invoices so that, the companies who were supplying government with drugs could continue,he applauded the political support he was receiving from those in power to address the health crisis.

“Some of the invoices are genuine, we conducted screening and recommend the payment of the genuine invoices.Government gave us a budget, even though it’s not enough to address the challenges but we are pushing to try and mitigate the crisis,the support is there”, he said.

When asked to clarify if action will be taken against those who might be implicated in the ongoing investigation into the health crisis, the PS said, a meeting will soon be held by stakeholders including the office of the Attorney General(AG) to release and analyze the investigation report and soon thereafter, a decision will be taken.

“The report will be released soon and be analyzed to ascertain if further steps could be taken against those implicated.I have been formally informed that, we will soon hold a meeting to discuss the findings together with other stakeholders that include the office of the Attorney General(AG).I would make an example, if the report recommends arrests, that would mean other law enforcement institutions will have to take over”, said the PS in the Ministry of Health.