Who's paying for useless Cuban drugs? Plus five highlights from 'Vrye Weekblad'

About R381m worth of Interferon-alfa-2b, an unregistered Cuban manufactured drug for the treatment of Covid-19 that the SANDF bought, is gathering dust in an unregistered depot that could soon be closed.

It's not been a good couple of months for the SANDF. We have seen one leak after the other of irregularities and it is no wonder that the chief in charge, General Solly Shoke, and Surgeon General Zola Dabula are on indefinite sick and special leave.

Details of the Interferon-alfa-2b order were recently leaked, apparently after an internal dispute about which division of the SANDF has to pay for it. The SA Military Health Service refused to pay because the department of health and the regulatory authority for health products has banned the use of the drug for Covid-19 patients.  

Military doctors refused to use the drug.

And it is still unclear who in the army approved the order.

And that is not the SAMHS and the army's only health headache.

The medicine depot where the Cuban drugs are stored was informed in early October by the pharmacy council that the depot will be shut if it is not registered in accordance with regulatory legislation by the end of December.

If the depot is closed, no medication or consumer items will be supplied to any of the army's clinics or hospitals across the country.

The depot has been in use for seven years.

In this time, the SAMHS has never registered it, which according to those in the know means that the depot is functioning irregularly.

Read more about this latest SANDF scandal and more news and analysis in this week's issue of Vrye Weekblad.

Must-read articles in this week's Vrye Weekblad

>> Browse the full November 6 edition

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AND THEREWITH THE OPPOSITION FOLDS | The DA will have to rethink policy, and perhaps the personalities responsible for the party's ideological fears should find a home elsewhere.

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