South Africa was facing a state of ‘biological warfare’ and it was therefore necessary for the military to import medicines from Cuba’s military authorities to counter Covid-19.
This came to light in presentations to the parliamentary portfolio committee on defence and military veterans.
South Africa’s senior military leadership paid R260 million rand for Heberon Interferon alfa-2B, which was intended to bolster the immune systems of military personnel. The first consignment was received in South Africa in April 2020, having been brought in on a flight which transported Cuban doctors to support the country’s efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the medication was not registered in South Africa, and various military doctors voiced their opposition to this plan.
Lt Col Thabo Mnisi, a senior medical officer in the South African National Defence Force, told the committee that Cuba’s military had successfully used the drug to treat early-stage infections. Prof Helen Rees, chair of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority, countered that the drug was not effective against Covid-19, and was not recognised by the World Health Organisation for this purpose.
It is not clear whether the reference to ‘biological war’ was meant literally in the sense of an attack on the country, or metaphorically as in combating the virus.
The arrival of the medication also contravened laws on the importation of medications.
The minister of defence and military veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, said that she had known of the procurement, and was concerned that the military had decided to use it for its own personnel, and not to distribute it to the population at large.
She also denied knowing that the military viewed the pandemic as biological warfare.
The illegal importation of the medication may cause problems for the minister, who came under unfavourable attention last year for having used an official plane to transport African National Congress colleagues to Zimbabwe for a party-to-party meeting.