HONEYBEE Pharmacy Limited’s lawyer Tutwa Ngulube says government must honour its obligation to pay Honeybee US$4 million for the products which were consumed.

In an interview, Ngulube said people wanted to throw mud at Honeybee when they were actually innocent, as no one could claim to have suffered any consequences as a result of using their drugs.

“We have seen that people have not stopped attacking Honeybee, telling lies about their goods. We challenged them last time to say bring us one person who will confirm to say that I used a Honeybee condom that was leaking, they have failed. Even that same Panadol, that they are saying Honeybee supplied is not okay…when I supply drugs to you and you don’t store the drugs properly, do you wake up and say ‘Tutwa Ngulube supplied us defective drugs’? People want to mud sling Honeybee, people want to throw mud at them but the truth of the matter is Honeybee is innocent. Government owes Honeybee US$4 million for all the medical supplies. They are just talking about Panadol, they have forgotten about everything else supplied. The investigations that were launched in the matter showed that Honeybee products were compliant,” Ngulube said.

“There was a time when some Panadol had some discoloration, just a change of color. Change of colour may be as a result of a lot of factors, it can be as a result of transportation, storage. These drugs need a particular temperature to be stored, they need a certain amount of humidity, they need to be transported in a certain manner. Those Honeybee products which people demonized were thrown away. More like they have just thrown away, they don’t really care how to keep the drugs then, later on, they wake up and they want to use the same drugs. But I can assure you that no single Zambian can wake up today and say that he suffered the consequences of using Honeybee drugs.”

He claimed that people were making up stories to prevent Honeybee Pharmacy from getting their payment.

“All those are just stories people had started putting up to just try and block Honeybee from getting their payment. Initially, they had lied that Honeybee was paid US$17 million when in fact, no single thing was done. So, we wrote a letter to the Ministry of Justice, itemizing the items that were consumed, what was supplied and used. So, government must pay Honeybee! Because government, at the time Honeybee was supplying, did not have money to pay. Now when demand for payment came, people rose and said ‘Honeybee should not be paid’. Let government honour their obligation to pay [for] what was consumed,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ngulube said the UPND were suffering the consequences of making fake promises, arguing that his party, PF, performed way better.

“The UPND are suffering the consequences of their fake promises and we are doing everything possible to remind them to fulfil their promises because if we in the opposition forget about reminding the UPND to fulfil their promises, they will not deliver to the people of Zambia. So, today you will hear [us] reminding them that ‘you said you will employ people, employ them’. Most of the promises that the UPND made were unrealistic and the majority of them will not be fulfilled even in 15 years to come because they made those pronouncements without looking at the government resources. They made those people please people, forgetting that at the end of the day, they will be required to fulfill all those campaign promises whether there is money or no money. Yes, there is a period within which a new government is allowed to dance and celebrate their victory but afterwards, people must begin to perform,” said Ngulube.

“As we speak, the 2021 budget is gone, the 2022 budget is gone, they are only remaining with two budgets, the 2026 budget will come after the general elections. So, they only have three years in which to perform. We don’t want them to sleep, we want them to fulfil all their promises because if they fulfil their promises, it will be good for the PF as well. 99 percent of the promises that the PF made were fulfilled and that is why today the UPND government is able to look like a government because most of the work was already done by the PF. In health infrastructure, in road networking, the only part that the PF did not do well was I think the rural connectivity in terms of roads. And no government in the next 50 years will perform better than the PF in the last ten years.”