Madam Deputy Speaker, the state of the body jointly comprising the Medicines Control Council and the Medicines Regulatory Authority is indicative of the utterly lopsided priorities of the Department of Health. For too long this body, which has the critical role of checking all medicines for safety and complying with ethics and quality has been left to doodle and fiddle and literally drown under the load of work, which is not being handled with any degree of efficiency or accountability.
The backlog of unregistered medicines, for which registration has been applied, currently stands at 92% and has risen annually. The budget of the Medicines Control Council, MCC, and the Medicines Regulatory Authority, MRA, was overspent by 100%. The latter amounted to R10 million overspent and the former to R2,4 million overspent.
Traditional medicines remain unregulated and complementary medicines likewise. The ruling against Dr Rath for promoting and selling his super vitamins should not have come from the courts, but from an MCC that was doing its job. The IFP calls for a full investigation into the reasons for the hopeless miscalculation in the budgets of these bodies before measures already in the pipeline are used to restructure the MCC and the MRA. Cleary more capacity, more accountability and a total review of policy objectives are required.
Ever since the failed attempt to introduce the South African Medicines and Medical Devices Regulatory Authority Act, Sammdra, when, in 1997, hon President Mandela was accused of not applying his mind to it in a court judgment against the Bill, this parlous situation has prevailed. Therefore, both the restructuring and the responsible regulation of medical matters, complementary medicines and African traditional medicine are an urgent priority of this government. I thank you. [Time expired.]