The Editor Zambia.
Attacks on Minister of Health, Prof. Roma Chilengi, by former
Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies Agency
(ZAMMSA) Director General Victor Nyasulu is aimed at obstructing the cleansing of the institution.
Nyasulu’s repeated condemnation of the minister’s decision to dismiss all the staff at ZAMMSA is well calculated to frustrate the clean-up exercise currently on the government drug stores institution. 
The glaring audit report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWCs) that uncovered systematic theft of medicines and corruption vindicates what Zambians have known and complained about for years.
The well-calculated and sponsored attacks on the new Minister of Health are aimed at frustrating his anti-corruption drive and cleaning of the institution, including at the Ministry Headquarters, Ndeke House.
This cleanup is being fought and distracted by those who benefited from the old rotten system and are now fighting back through proxies who sponsoring media stories against the minister’s action.
Victor Nyasulu, who served at ZAMMSA when 41 containers of medicines were diverted and abandoned in a warehouse in Makeni while hospitals had no drugs, have no moral standing to lecture government on drug supply management.
Nyasulu claims that the issues the new Minister of Health is raising about ZAMMSA seem to tie with reports of privatising certain aspects of the agency should be dismissed as mere hallucinations by an individual whose political fortunes have diminished.
Nyasulu’s political fortunes, which were intended to give him relevance to the Zambians, have not materialised in all the opposition parties that he joined after resigning from the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND). Nyasulu moved from one party to another, including the Patriotic Front (PF), Citizens First, and Tonse-Pamodzi Alliance, with a view to gain political relevance after he was unceremoniously
fired from ZAMMSA.
Zambians have not forgotten the Makeni scandal and the artificial shortages ZAMMSA created under the management of Nyasulu.
The decisive reforms being undertaken by the new Minister of Health must be supported by every well-meaning Zambian. What was happening at ZAMMSA under Victor Nyasulu was not mere inefficiency. It was organised chaos and criminality.
Medicines procured with taxpayers’ money and donor funds meant to save innocent lives in clinics were systematically stolen and diverted to private pharmacies, according to the audit report.
Zambians were forced to buy medicines in public hospitals because medics deliberately wrote prescriptions and directed patients to specific private drug outlets. Investigations found that most drug stores were owned by employees of the Ministry of Health. This unacceptable situation is what Minister Chilengi is trying to stop.
The dismissal of ZAMMSA staff implicated in the audit and the underway redeployment at the Ministry Headquarters is, therefore, not witch-hunt but a clean-up to curb corruption.
No reform can succeed without breaking the network that has held the Ministry of Health hostage for years. Prof. Chilengi must be commended for having the courage to touch what others before him feared to touch.
The Ministry of Health is too important to be left to cartels. It handles the lives of Zambians. The Minister, therefore, must not be distracted by those who benefited from the old rotten system.
President Hakainde Hichilema’s government was elected on a promise to fight corruption, and this is exactly what Prof. Chilengi is doing.
All citizens, health workers of integrity, cooperating partners, and anti-corruption agencies should be encouraged to rally behind the Minister.
The redeployment and dismissals must be extended to all those whose pharmacies are stocked with stolen government medicines. Let the medicines reach the people, not the private drug stores.
The minister should also extend the dismissals to medics who administered expired 364 quantities of renal dialysis fluids valued at US$9,100 (K176,176) were issued to patients after expiry.
According to the latest 2025 Auditor General’s Report, 364 quantities of renal dialysis fluids valued at US$9,100 (K176,176) were issued to patients after expiry dates.
Let that sink in. Patients whose kidneys have already failed, whose lives depend on a machine to clean their blood, were given expired fluids to be pumped into their bodies.
The question every Zambian must ask is: Was this negligence or a deliberate act of sabotage? Renal dialysis is not Panadol. It is a highly sensitive, sterile procedure handled by specialists.
Every bag is checked, expiry dates verified, and batch number recorded. For 364 expired units to leave the store, pass through pharmacy, get to the dialysis unit, and be administered to patients cannot be a simple oversight. This is criminal negligence of the highest order and a calculated act by a rotten system to harm citizens to embarrass the government.
This single finding exposes the rot at the Ministry of Health and at ZAMMSA. How did ZAMMSA store medicines until they expire and distribute the expired drugs for patients’ consumption?
While Zambians were told there are no dialysis fluids and were being sent to buy from private pharmacies owned by employees of the Ministry of Health, expired fluids were being issued in public hospitals.
This is why the reforms by Prof. Roma Chilengi must be supported without apology. The Ministry needs a complete overhaul.
Those who issued expired dialysis fluids must not just be redeployed. They must be investigated, prosecuted, and deregistered. Issuing expired fluids to dialysis patients is attempted murder.
Minister Chilengi should be supported to fully implement the health policies of President Hakainde Hichiema.
