We Have Been Down This Road Before
Opinion
By Grace Mutandwa
As I grow older there are many things that incense me and right at the top of the list are people who pretend to care about poor people but think nothing of scams to shake them down.
Zimbabwe’s Constitution protects the right to religion. I do not judge people of faith but I am always stunned by people who suspend reason when it comes to defending their church leaders and their church doctrine.
Several years ago, a self-styled doctor, Richard Ngwenya sold some gullible Zimbabweans a dummy when he claimed he had come up with a cure for HIV/Aids. Some rushed to buy what he was selling which turned out to have nothing but Vitamin B properties. It was no cure but he made money.
This week, Walter Magaya a leader of one of the numerous Pentecostal churches claims he partnered with some Indians and has come up with an HIV cure. He claims he has tested it on 14 people. With whose authority?
There must be a law that prohibits that. How does a man with no medical background just start testing herbs on people? How does a government sit back and allow such a thing? When we say the government does not care about the welfare of the people, this is exactly what we mean. People should be protected against charlatans of any form even if they hide behind pretentious religious beliefs.
How long is the government going to continue watching while self-styled prophets talk of the fear of God and yet proceed to steal from the very same people they claim to be saving from the devil? What are the lives of Zimbabweans worth to our government?
The Ministry of Health and Child Care has rightly responded; “The ministry would like to inform the public that there are processes and procedures that new medicines, should go through before they are recognized as effective and safe for use by patients. Medicines go through rigorous tests, including clinical trials, which involve the use of the product under strict medical supervision. This is done prior to registration and the results are submitted to the Medicines Regulator as evidence of the effectiveness of the medicine. If the clinical trials are performed within the country, these trials are authorised by the Secretary for Health and Child Care.”
While the statement is good it is in my view impotent and does not solve the immediate problem of a shakedown covered in religious candy.
The ministry has also strongly encouraged those on Anti-Retro Viral medicines (ARVs) to continue taking their medication and to acquire their drugs from approved and licensed sources.
In his marketing spiel Magaya claims that if an Aids patient takes the Aguma drug being peddled by his Aretha Medical company, the patient’s CD4 count will shoot up by 200% within 14 days.
A person is diagnosed to have Aids when their CD4 count falls below 200. CD4 count is a test that measures the CD4 cell in one’s blood – white blood cells known as T-cells. The normal range of CD4 cells lies between 500 – 1 500. ARVs help control the HIV virus and to increase one’s CD4 count.
What Magaya’s announcement will do is give false hope to unquestioning Christians, who will get off their drugs and start using Magaya’s Aguma and expect to be completely healed. The government should do more than issue a statement. People who endanger the lives of people should face much more than a hand-wringing press release. Zimbabwean lives should be worth a lot more than that. We have been down this road before and the government should show that it is on the side of the people.
Haven’t Zimbabweans been robbed and lied to enough?