Activists call for SA to refuse eSwatini PM Covid-19 treatment
The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) has called for the South African government to decline eSwatini Prime Minister entry into the country to undergo Covid-19 treatment.
The eSwatini government confirmed that Ambrose Dlamini would be transferred to a South African health facility on an urgent basis due to Covid-19 complications.
But SSN spokesperson Lucky Lukhele says Dlamini’s admission to a South African health facility is proof that Swati officials don’t have confidence in their own health system.
“By virtue of being a member of Mswati's cabinet, the Swazi Prime Minister is part of a government that has collapsed the country's health system, turning it into a death waiting room for ordinary Swazis who cannot afford to go to South Africa or overseas for medical attention,” says Lukhele.
“He too should go to a hospital in Swaziland so that he can fully understand what Swazis go through every time they go to hospital.”
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The country's 52-year-old premier, Ambrose Dlamini, announced on November 16 that he had tested positive but that he felt well and was asymptomatic. But on Tuesday Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku said Dlamini was "stable" and "responding well to treatment".
He further accuses the prime minister of being in possession of fraudulent immigration documents.
“He fraudulently acquired South African citizenship which in terms of the Immigration Act, means he cannot enter South Africa for a period of 5 years for the said offense.
“It is in that regard that we call on South Africa's Minister of Home Affairs to be consistent and refuse him entry into the country. The South African government should not be seen to have rules and regulations for ordinary people and another set of rules for the royal criminal elite.”
Lukhele says the seemingly porous South African borders run the risk of making the country look bad.
“If the South African government allows this then the Minister of Home Affairs must then explain the exit of Mr Bushiri, another fraudster. It will then confirm that South Africa is a banana republic and we will definitely take this thing up with SADC and all the other bodies in Africa and internationally.”
