Salary woes at Health Ministry Nutrition
CONCERNS:
The staff members are paid via a subvention from government. They said even if this was the case, they wondered why their salaries were delayed.
MBABANE - They perform one of the country’s essential duties, to provide nutrition for pregnant women but they allege that payment is never on time.
This has been raised by some staff members at the Nutrition Unit (Eswatini National Nutrition Council) under the Ministry of Health. The unit is responsible for the procuring micronutrients for pregnant women and also nutrition for malnourished children. The nutrients are provided to pregnant women at different stages of their pregnancy and are considered essential as they also assist, especially many of the expectant mothers who struggle to acquire the right nutrition. Their duties, however, are not just limited to acquiring nutrition for expectant mothers but many other people in vulnerable situations.
According to information sourced from nutrition sites online, micronutrients are essential nutrients that are required in small amounts for the proper functioning of the body. They play a crucial role in supporting the health and development of pregnant women and their growing foetuses. This further ensures that children are not born with deformities, that otherwise could have been prevented.
This publication also gathered that this unit has about nine employees. It was also gathered that while they are not treated like civil servants, they are based within the Ministry of Health. Some of the officials expressed concern that they sometimes allegedly waited for three months for their salaries to be paid. They wondered how they were expected to sustain their families if they were not being paid on time. *Juma, one of the officials said they were recently paid for a previous three-month salary but the latest month income was missing. “How do they expect us to work efficiently?” asked
Juma.
Juma said the nutrients were essential, just like medicines and were stored at the Central Medical Stores (CMS). From CMS, these are then distributed to hospitals around the country. Also, among the beneficiaries are children who otherwise could be malnourished with the nutrients.
At attempt was also made to reach other officials within the unit but advised that the right persons would be the Director or the Principal Secretary (PS). Both were called but could not be reached.
$87+25,7<
The Minister of Health, Lizzie Nkosi, when reached for comment noted, that it was unlikely they were civil servants. She said if these were civil servants, then the procedure was to follow through to the relevant authority through the human resource.
This publication also later gathered that the staff members are paid via a subvention from the government. They said even if this was the case, they wondered why their salaries were delayed.
Meanwhile, recently security guards working in various hospitals also complained of not getting paid on time despite having been at work. They blamed the Ministry of Health for not paying their employer on time, adding that this was the cause for their delay of salaries.
Also, health motivators had also complained of not having been paid on time. It was reported by Eswatini News that they had not been paid for about three months. However, at the time of compiling this report, the ministry responded that the mode of paying the health motivators was being changed and that this would be done directly into their mobile money accounts monthly.
The key intervention areas are: Infant and Young Child Feeding
●
Integrated Community based
●
Growth Monitoring and promotion,
Integrated Management of
●
Acute Malnutrition in Children and Adults
Nutrition & HIV
●
Prevention and Control of Micronutrients
● deficiencies and
About the nutrition programme (Eswatini National Nutrition Council)
According to the government website, the aim of the Nutrition Council is to improve the nutrition and health status of the nation for all vulnerable groups at all levels of society by providing effective, comprehensive, decentralised, coordinated, sustainable and enabling environment for the provision of food and nutrition services in Eswatini.
Nutrition Surveillance
●
Achievements
●
For the proper coordination and implementation of food and nutrition activities in the country, the National Food and Nutrition Strategic Plan is in place.
In order to support exclusive breastfeeding, six hospitals and four health centres have been designated baby friendly. Support is given to the remaining health centre for it to be re-assessed and be certified as baby friendly. National guidelines for infant and young child feeding are in place and officially launched.
National guidelines for the integrated management of acute malnutrition are in place and officially launched. National guidelines on nutrition and HIV for service providers are in place and officially launched. At least 32 tinkhundla centres have been trained and are providing growth monitoring and promotion services. Six in-patient and 26 out-patient therapeutic feeding sites for the treatment of severe and moderate acute malnutrition are operational.
0LQLVWHU /L]]LH 1NRVL VDLG LI WKHVH ZHUH FLYLO VHUY DQWV WKHQ WKH SURFHGXUH ZDV WR IROORZ WKURXJK WR WKH UHOHYDQW DXWKRULW\
When Sethu’s family was reached for comment, her uncle, Mandla Magagula, said it was the first time that she had visited her paternal home.
Mandla spoke on behalf of the girl’s father who was identified as Sibusiso Magagula. Mandla revealed that at the time of her demise, Sethu lived with her mother’s relatives.
Sethu’s uncle said she had visited because schools had been closed for the first-term and that when she returned to Sidwashini, they were shocked to be informed that she had died after falling into the tank.
Her grandparents home, where the alleged death occurred, were also reached for comment.
&21),50('
They had confirmed that the two died in the maize storage container and that they were to be buried on two different dates. They said this was to be done to allow family members to attend both funerals.
Meanwhile, about five years ago, under Mhlangatane area, a couple was found dead inside their bedroom. Their bodies had been badly burnt but what shocked the family is that the couple did not appear to have attempted to flee from the fire.
Their charred bodies were still on the bed, as if reading books. This happened in 2018, not far from Sethu’s paternal homestead.
Family members of the deceased couple had reported to the police, after which some family members were also questioned but no one was arrested. The case had never been solved according to family members who wondered how the couple could have died on their beds without signs of attempts to flee.