UK denies holding up vital drugs for Rhodesia

The Rhodesia Herald, 21

January 1970

THE British Government today strongly denied that because of its sanctions policy it had held up delivery of vital drugs, which might have saved the lives of three children in Rhodesia.

The complaint originally made by Dr John Axton, acting head of the paediatrics department of the University College of Rhodesia in Salisbury, was raised in the House of Commons by a Conservative Member, Major Patrick Wall. The doctor complained that an antidote needed for acute mercury poisoning took some five weeks to come from London and might have saved three children if it had arrived earlier. A preparation used in tuberculosis testing was also impounded for a month, he said. In reply to Mr Wall’s request for a Government statement, Mrs Gwyneth Dunwoody, Parliamentary secretary at the Trade Ministry, said in a written reply:

“I cannot accept any imputation of delay on the part of the Board of Trade.

“The United Nations resolution on Rhodesian sanctions expressly excepts ‘supplies intended strictly for medical purposes’ and, although such supplies are subject to export licensing, in each of the two instances quoted the required licences were issued and dispatched on the day that the application were received.”

LESSONS FOR TODAY

◆ Unlike Rhodesia whose sanctions were imposed by the United Nations, the debilitating sanctions against independent Zimbabwe are illegal and affecting the lives of people — rich and poor alike.

◆ The sanctions continue to negatively impact the economy. Social services like the health delivery system are suffering, as efforts to resuscitate social services by Government in the first two decades of independence have been eroded.

◆ Zimbabwe and the rest of the world currently face the worst public health catastrophe. The Covid-19 pandemic is a very costly health disaster, where the majority of materials to fight the virus have to be imported. These include testing kits, personal protective equipment, drugs and now vaccines. Millions of dollars in foreign currency are required.

◆ Apart from Covid-19, Zimbabwe also has to deal with other deadly diseases like cancer, HIV and Aids, diabetes, water-borne diseases and more.

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