Increase bagcugcuteli stipend - MPs

LOBAMBA – Members of Parliament want the stipend for health motivators, popularly known as increased.

bagcugcuteli, Currently, the health motivators get a meagre E350, which has no specific timelines as it comes haphazardly at times.

The legislators said the ministry should look into increasing the stipend for the health motivators as they played a crucial role, especially in the rural areas, in assisting those in need of medical assistance.

Part

One of the legislators to bring the issue up was LaMgabhi MP Dumisani Dlamini, who stated that the health motivators were a big part of the health system and they needed to be motivated through an improved stipend.

Minister Lizzie Nkosi noted the concern, which came from multiple MPs and she stated that one of the reasons the stipend was stagnant for over a long period now was budgetary issues. She highlighted that the ministry’s budget had not yet reached the 15 per cent of the overall country’s annual budget as required by the Abuja Declaration by African leaders in 2001 and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to allocate, at least, 15 per cent of yearly national budgets to health.

Concern

Meanwhile, Mkhiweni MP Michael Masuku raised a concern about Masta 900, which is a water-soluble powder insecticide for the control of pests in crops, saying that the ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, should abolish the use of the chemical as people were using it to commit suicide.

He stated that in just four months, seven people had died in his constituency after ingesting the chemical and it should not be made available to people.