#Expired Meds Virtual Protest Planned For Friday

The Alliance for Community Action (ACA) is leading a protest calling for Justice and Accountability on Friday 12 February. 

“With the recent revelations of drugs expiring, enough is enough! Heads must roll! Join thousands across the country in demanding for justice and accountability,” the announcement reads. 

The protest is scheduled to take place between 0900 and 1700 hours. To get involved participants are encouraged to record and post a video demanding for investigations and prosecution of the culprits; take a photo with a placard demanding action; tell your MP to demand justice for the victims of the HoneyBee Pharmacy scandal; and to share, forward and retweet messages. 

The group’s Executive Director Laura Miti encouraged people to participate. 

“Zambians have to stop the mismanagement of resources that is leading to extreme poverty and very poor service delivery. Let your voice be heard on Friday,” Miti wrote on social media. 

The latest protest has been prompted by the HoneyBee Pharmacy scandal in which a parliamentary inquiry found that the pharmacy supplied several faulty medical products, including mouldy paracetamol and leaky condoms. The company was awarded a contract worth $17 million in June 2020, despite not being an officially registered company at the time. Numerous products supplied by the company have since been subject to recall and the company has now lost its licence as a result of the scandal. 

Protestors and civil society activists have been forced to become increasingly creative with their strategies to increase pressure on the government to clean up its act in recent time, even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year protestors took to the bush where they streamed demonstrations in a bid to evade police after Home Affairs Minister Stephen Kampyongo deployed police in full riot gear onto the streets of the capital, warning demonstrators to stay away or “risk being dealt with”.