Bad medicine
Since 1994, SA’s helping hand towards its Caribbean brothers and sisters has never been far from controversy, making headlines for all the wrong reasons. These included Cuban doctors in SA being unable to communicate with patients; Cuban water specialists brought to SA when local engineers are unemployed; and importing a hocus-pocus Covid drug for soldiers that hadn’t been approved by the medicines regulator.
In 2020, the department of defence collaborated with its Cuban counterpart to order 1.2-million vials of Heberon, an antiviral drug manufactured by the Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology in Havana. Only, the drug isn’t registered with the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra), which means the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) effectively “smuggled” an illicit substance into the country, bypassing even customs control.
By law, no-one can import medicines into SA unless they come through an approved port of entry. Waterkloof Air Force Base in Pretoria, where the drug was brought in, is not one of them.
The total value of the contract was about R230m, including clinical trials to test the drug on soldiers. At the time, the SANDF said it was desperate to protect its soldiers against Covid, and preliminary studies conducted by the Cubans indicated that the drug may help.
Subsequent peer-reviewed studies, however, found the drug to be of no benefit in treating Covid.
It was the auditor-general who first raised the red flag, calling the contract “irregular” and referring other problems to the Hawks for further investigation.
A second investigation was conducted by a task team appointed by the then defence minister,
Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula. That task team found that one of the motivations offered by the SANDF was that “Sahpra seemed to be doing the bidding for the dominant pharmaceutical monopolies or oligarchies that consistently seek to stifle any competition, especially one that unconventionally comes from the likes of the Republic of Cuba and any other source outside of the dominant Western axis led by US and European pharmaceuticals”.
It smacks of outdated Cold War paranoia, replete with wild conspiracy theories.
The two central figures in the deal, SANDF chief Gen Solly Shoke and surgeon-general Lt-Gen Zola Dabula, both went on pension shortly after the investigation. In January, a consignment of 500,000 vials was returned to Cuba.