DEAR Editor,-
The current shortage of injectable contraceptives is entirely unique to KwaZulu-Natal with no shortage anywhere else in the country while suppliers have ample stock. A call to any other province or a check in with the private sector will confirm this.
Despite this, KZN Health MEC, Sibongiseni Dhlomo and his department have attempted to blame suppliers for the shortage. This is pure drivel and a tired old habit, as are the many fabrications the MEC has peddled to the people of KZN over the years.
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The South African Constitution, in the Bill of Rights, makes contraception and the right to access it a right of every person. In our view, this includes male contraception. In this case, however, it is women who are at the sharp end of the system who are being denied the right to control their own reproduction. This shameful situation represents the very worst of patriarchal oppression from which women must be freed.
It is also a fact that women who have been using a particular injectable contraceptive become physiologically accustomed to it. When it is withdrawn or changed abruptly, it can cause any manner of complications and problems.
With the current shortage, many women may choose to wait for stock to be replenished – without using the alternatives available to them. The result of this is unwanted pregnancies. In some instances, these pregnancies may even drive them to back-door abortionists, placing their lives at great risk.
Injectable contraceptives are not the only medicine shortages in our province. There are many others. Yet the MEC continues to boast about a system to identify stock-outs when, in fact, the tender for the programme has not been renewed.
At this stage it is difficult to trust anything that the MEC or his department say. It is time for him to come clean. At the next meeting of the provincial health portfolio committee he needs to explain to members how this shocking situation has been allowed to happen.
DR IMRAN KEEKA, MPL
DA KZN Spokesman on Health
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