By Zweli Martin Dlamini
Africa-Press – Eswatini. Thulani Tfwala, the then Swazi Observer editor collapsed and died inside a bathroom amid the health crisis, his alleged sponsor Victor Gamedze who was assisting him with money to buy medication died earlier leaving Tfwala vulnerable and the editor followed months later.
In the media industry, we do have walking patients, in fact it is rare to have a man or woman in his/her forties(40s) or fifties(50) surviving without constant medical attention these days, it’s the nature of our lives.
SwaziPharm Director Kareem Ashraff is accused of looting about R1billion being monies allocated or budgeted to purchase Antiretroviral(ARVs) and as the HIV/AIDS slogan says; “it’s either you are infected or affected”.
We do have patients in the media who are busy defending Kareem Ashraff not knowing that, they are digging their own graves, we are journalists but “its either we are infected or affected because we have relatives and friends”.
But apart from that, as journalists, we have an obligation to be the voice of the patients within the various hospitals who are in pain and, can’t speak for themselves.
Indeed, the health crisis is escalating to a point where even those who are defending the corruption will find themselves having to pay the price with their lives, stealing money allocated to purchase ARVs amounts to murder or attempted murder and only a fool can defend an alleged murderer.
Journalists should be independent minded, visionary and put the interests of the people first, it’s the fundamental duty of the media and the basic principle of journalism.
But a fool with no ability to predict the future of this country amid the health crisis, cannot be a successful journalist because in this regard, a journalist must be able to predict the number of deaths and then, work towards mitigating the unfortunate situation.
As mentioned, issues of HIV/AIDS are very sensitive, even if you are not HIV+, you might be having a relative who needs constant medical attention and therefore, if we allow alleged corrupt thieves like Kareem Ashraff to collapse the health system, more emaSwati will die.
Thulani Tfwala, the then prominent editor had a heart and kidney failure disease and he needed constant medical attention.
Swazi Mobile founder and Mbabane Swallows Director Victor Gamedze played a huge role in supporting Tfwala but unfortunately he died and, the editor followed months later because the Mbabane Government Hospital had no medication.
Now, SwaziPharm Director who allegedly collapsed our health is using journalists to clean himself but those journalists are not immune to HIV infections and other diseases, if the country face shortage of ARVs, they will be affected or die.
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