City socialite Shanita Namuyimbwa commonly known as Bad Black has refuted claims by the Ministry of Health that the advert she made on sensitizing women on the border to stay away from the truck drivers was for free.
Bad Black made her fight back while during a press briefing on Monday saying that she did two adverts for Ministry- the one on wearing face masks and that of sensitizing women on the border against getting in contact with cargo truck driver. The one on face mask was free but the one for sensitizing sex workers was to be paid for.
She said the ministry must pay her Shs500m whether they like it or not because she is not a charity organisation to work for free.
In April, the Ministry of Health embarked on a new campaign to sensitize women living at the border points to stay away from truck drivers after several of them tested positive for coronavirus.
The Ministry through Precision Communications Consulting Limited found Bad Black as a appealing figure to deliver such an audio-visual message to commercial sex workers around border points. The advert went viral on all media platforms.
“I have now known why Bobi Wine advocates for change in Uganda because President Museveni works with thieves. Ministry of Health came to my home and asked me to do an advert alluding that I was fit to do that and promised to pay me but now they are changing posts,” Bad Bad said on told journalists on Monday.
“I have my money, Shs500m is not a big deal to me, but I want them to pay for my services, I only know one advert I did for free it’s that of masks because I was responding for president’s Museveni’s call,” she said.
Last week Bad Black opened war at government accusing them of refusing to pay for her services.
She said that was going to sue government following futile efforts to reach out to the Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng and permanent Secretary Dr Diana Atwiine to demand for her payment.
In response, the Ministry of Health yesterday said Bad Black voluntarily accepted to record a free video message sensitizing fellow commercial workers against getting in contact with truck drivers as one of the ways of controlling the spread of COVID-19 in Uganda.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the Ministry says, following the call of H. E the President to the public to donate or provide free services towards the prevention of Covid-19, a number of companies came out to support the Ministry of Health with some offering a number of items while others supporting in terms of services they offer.
“It is therefore against this background that Precision Communications Consulting Limited came out and donated Media Production services to the Ministry of Health under close supervision of the Ministry, all content and messaging cleared by the Ministry of Health,” the Ministry of Health said.
” Additionally, Precision Communications consulting limited approached various key personalities who voluntarily recorded messages as a way of giving back to their country in this Covid-19 fight, among whom was Bad Black. All these individuals were requested to voluntarily participate, and they consented before any recording was made.”
The Ministry further revealed that Bad Black in particular consented to record a message that was appealing to her colleagues who were at risk of contracting Covid-19, and would thus spread it to other members of the community.
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