By Zweli Martin Dlamini

After we published the story suggesting that, kidney failure patients might not receive assistance from public hospitals with effect from Wednesday, I was flooded with calls even from emaSwati abroad expressing concerns with regards to the lives of their relatives who are on dialysis treatment.

Even though Health Minister Mduduzi Matsebula rushed to address or mitigate the problem on Wednesday, it is worth mentioning that, this Government is literally playing with fire, gambling with the lives of the poor emaSwati.

The reason we pay tax, is that we want our money to provide such health services among others, to those who can’t afford Medical Aids, we will therefore, continue to demand, as we hereby do, the accountability of public funds.

We have dozens of kidney failure patients in this country and we want Government to ensure that, they are alive and health by providing quality health services, any excuse or explanation would mean Government is telling those patients to go home and die.

Now, we must have the data of all kidney failure patients so that we can monitor if Government is providing health services,once a kidney failure patient dies,we deserve an explanation from the State if the death was not as a result of shortage of drugs or dialysis equipment.

This is a Government that doesn’t care about the lives of the people hence the consistent excuses and outright lies since the health crisis erupted.

Government must learn to prioritize the lives of the ordinary poor citizens and provide quality health services, taxes are paid for such services not to sustain King Mswati extravagant lifestyle.