When Gabriella Chinduta travelled to South Africa in 2019, she had no idea how she would access healthcare services there.
All she envisioned was a perfect life; after all, it was her fiancé that facilitated her travel to the rainbow nation.
“All I ever wanted was to follow my then fiancé, and by then, that dream came true. I never thought of what could or could not happen, including sickness,” she said.
unfortunate. I Nation
Fast forward, a year and a half later, she started getting sick often and having entered the country illegally, she would not access public health facilities.
Her streetwise husband knew better where to purchase medication for her.
However, he also did not know where the medical drugs came from until someone within their illegal community disclosed that they were smuggled from Malawi.
Later, Gabriella would buy the drugs on her own after her fiancé introduced her to one of the sellers.
Despite that some of the medicines did not work, Gabriella, who is a maid in Braamfontein, has kept a “professional” relationship with the individual.
Nation on Sunday was able to reach out to the individual, who plies his trade on the streets of Johannesburg and despite his earlier reluctance, he granted us an interview on condition of anonymity.
He said he has been buying medicines from Malawi since 2015 through intermediaries, who access them from health facilities.
The medicines, including ARVs, are smuggled to South Africa through bus and truck drivers knowingly or unknowingly.
“They are concealed in such a way that they cannot be traced. Of course, at times, bribery does take place for ease of movement of the medicines,” he said.
Mostly, the medicines are concealed together with food or ordinary luggage that is even checked at the borders. The source, however, refused to give this reporter contacts of key people in the smuggling chain.
He said he is not alone in the trade, but he also refused giving us contacts of others who illegally buy the medicines and sell them on the black market in that country.
Our findings corroborate and reinforce what an investigative journalism platform, South Africa’s Ground Up News, established in March that Malawi’s medical drugs are sold in Johannesburg’s streets to illegal immigrants.
But while the situation is leading poor taxpayers to struggle to access essential medicines in public health facilities amid stockouts, it is also exposing the illegal immigrants to numerous health complications since they do not get the right prescriptions.
A report of Detecting and Deterring Medication Theft: A Field Study in Health Clinics in Malawi says with 35 percent of medicines missing between Central Medical Stores and final clinics, theft appears to substantially impact health access with patients experiencing more stockouts and spending more in purchasing drugs from pharmacies.
The Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence Research Programme—a United Kingdom-based governance platform that supports research projects which generate actionable evidence for policymakers to design and implement anti-corruption initiatives conducted the study.
Reads part of the findings: “We identify little theft during delivery and we observe higher rates of theft after delivery, possibly by public health staff. However, contrary to what is often assumed, supply chain error is the most common cause of missing medicines.
“These findings confirm that theft is a severe public health problem, but suggest policymakers could also productively redirect anti-theft investments towards closing supply chain gaps.”
Malawi Health Equity Network (Mhen) executive director George Jobe in an interview last month described the situation as unfortunate.
He said the government needs to establish where leakages take place, especially in public health facilities.
Said Jobe: “That can help to seal the leaking taps and thereby help to improve availability of some of the medicines in short supply. We also need to be vigilant at our borders on what is getting out of the country as well.”
He further said it is high time Malawi adopted what Mhen has been advocating for, that medicines in the country’s public health facilities should have a symbol for their identification.
But when contacted last month, Medical Council of Malawi registrar Dr Dave Zolowere referred Nation on Sunday to Pharmacy and Medicines Regulatory Authority (PMRA).
PMRA spokesperson Joseph Josiah promised to respond to a questionnaire, but four weeks down the line, he is yet to respond.
But Health and Rights Education Programme executive director Maziko Matemba in a separate interview said drug smuggling is a wake-up call for the Malawi Government.
He said the country must independently investigate the magnitude of the problem.
Matemba said it would also be important for the country to discuss with South Africa and other neighbouring countries how best they can collaborate to reduce drug smuggling.
He said: “I am aware that the Malawi Government managed to close some loopholes at Central Medical Stores Trust by making it a trust with some securities, including a task force at the Ministry of Health which involves law enforcement agencies.
“But the weakness can be at the point of delivery as it is free with minor controls which have to be strengthened, looking at this new report from South Africa.”
Matemba observed that one of the loopholes in the health system is that most of the medicines are donated, including vaccines; hence, healthcare workers take advantage of the same to steal.
Both Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Dr. Samson Mndolo and spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe were also yet to respond to our questionnaires which we sent to them on April 2 2025, respectively.
