Times Of Swaziland: PARLY’S RAILWAY LAND PROBE ACADEMIC

PARLY’S RAILWAY LAND PROBE ACADEMIC
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 BY WELCOME DLAMINI on 04/07/2020 23:58:00


MBABANE – Time will tell if it is worth it. The parliament probe into the
purchase of land by Eswatini Railways where the public enterprise is now
building its headquarters could prove to be both academic and a waste of public
funds.
A select committee has been elected to investigate the fragrant flouting of
procurement procedures at Eswatini Railways in relation to, inter alia: the
buying of land in Ezulwini for the construction of the parastatal’s
headquarters and the procurement of eight cars.
While the investigation is pending, Minister of Public Works and Transport Chief
Ndlaluhlaza Ndwandwe has been directed to halt any transfers or processes
relating to the ownership of the land.
However, investigations conducted by the Times SUNDAY show that this directive
has been overtaken by events.
This is because the land in question is already registered in the name of
Eswatini Railways, having been transferred two years ago.
According to the deed of transfer, which this publication has seen, the land was
transferred on March 14, 2018 from Muzi Nicholas Dlamini in his capacity as
Director of Kwasa Kusile (PTY) Ltd.
PORTION
The property is portion 10 (a portion of portion 1) of Farm No. 850 in the
Hhohho District.
Kwasa Kusile (PTY) LTD is owned by Futhi Johannes Dlamini, who is a medical
practitioner by profession and his brother Muzi, who is a businessman. During
the sale of the property, Kwasa Kusile was represented by Muzi.
An expert on land transfers said in as far as this land is concerned, the horse
has already bolted and it is almost impossible to reverse the transfer of the
property.
“The only thing that parliament can do is to ask for a reversal if they think
there was any wrongdoing but even then, only the court can order the reversal.
You cannot just reverse by merely pointing but the courts only can order this.
Once you transfer a property, it becomes final.”
The expert warned that such a reversal could also prove costly because the
seller would have to be compensated. “The seller might claim that he has been
delayed as the property could have been sold to other buyers but now it is being
brought back to him,” added the expert.
The minister of Public Works and Transport also stated that the land was long
transferred to the ownership of Eswatini Railways.
“I believe the movers of the motion were given wrong information. We will wait
for the select committee’s questions on the matter and we will inform them of
what we will be able to do and what is beyond our control,” Ndwandwe said.
Thabiso Masina, the Registrar of Deeds, said their role in this matter would be
to only confirm the name to whom the land is registered and nothing else.
“As the Deeds Registrar’s Office, we don’t interfere in parliament work;
maybe the AG can assist you with the legal implications of this,” Masina said.
SOLD
The land, which initially belonged to Mantenga Trust after it was sold to the
latter by government in 1956, was sold to Eswatini Railways on January 16, 2018
for E11.25 million.
It is understood that the public enterprise secured a loan from Nedbank to
purchase the piece of land, which measures 1.0064 hectares.
Before buying this piece of land, Eswatini Railways is said to have had the
option of purchasing another piece of land, which belonged to the late
businessman Victor Mfana Gamedze.
This is the same land that was eventually bought by the Members of Parliament
and Designated Office Bearers Pension Fund, known by the acronym MOPADO.
The land was sold to MOPADO by Gamedze’s wife, Lungile Hotencia Gamedze, for
E12 million.
The land, which measures 1.3480 hectares, is situated near Corner Plaza and Cash
Build Hardware on the stretch where Lungile’s father, the late Prince
Makhungu, has a homestead.
The princess sold the property to MOPADO on August 23, 2018 and she did this in
her capacity as trustee of Madlenya Trust.
Sources said Eswatini Railways ended up not purchasing this land because
Gamedze, who was alive at the time, wanted to avoid political interference that
had crept into the sale.
Before purchasing the land that is now subject of the parliament probe, Eswatini
Railway is said to have engaged, in November 2017, Ngwenya Wanfor and Associates
to conduct an evaluation on the property and the value of the land was placed at
E12.5 million.
“Eswatini Railways negotiated the price until the figure of E11.25 million was
agreed with the seller,” an impeccable source told this publication.
It has been ascertained from other sources that one of the main concerns
regarding the land sale, hence the probe, are allegations that the price was
inflated.
“We wonder what the probe team will say when it is brought to their attention
that in fact the land was bought at a lesser amount compared to its true
value,” said one source.
The land is situated next to where the Eswatini Communications Commission has
also acquired property on which to build its own head offices.It is also close
to the new multi-million hospital that is being built by Swazi Med.
On March 10, 2019, this newspaper published an article in which the private
sector expressed grave concern at the rapid growth of public companies that are
building their own offices.
Their strong argument was that the hasty construction of office parks by the
public companies was driving private investors out of business.
ALLOWED
They pointed to the fact that the more the public companies were allowed to
construct their own offices, the more they vacated the already existing offices
owned by private investors. They observed that office parks owned by the private
sector were increasingly being left vacant.
Business Eswatini President Andrew le Roux was quoted saying ‘this is a very
unhealthy business environment and something has to be done to stop this’.
Le Roux highlighted that it was wrong for the public companies to compete with
private investors in the property (office parks) sector because they were
driving them (private investors) out of business.
“These companies are subsidised by the taxes paid by the private sector and
they then use the same money to compete with the same private sector.
“That is totally unfair and not ideal for the country’s economic
development,” he said.
Other public companies that have built their own offices include Swaziland
Finance Corporation (FINCORP), Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (SMVAF),
Eswatini Water Services Corporation (ESWSC), Eswatini Post and
Telecommunications Corporation (EPTC), EswatiniBank, and the Eswatini
Electricity Company (EEC).