Times Of Swaziland: MP’S MOTION ON SWEET STATUS STOPPED

MP’S MOTION ON SWEET STATUS STOPPED
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Sibusiso Zwane on 13/09/2021 09:26:00


MANZINI - An MP who tried to move a motion about the status of SWEET was
allegedly told to stop because ‘utsintsa sikhehle sabomanyovu’ (inviting
trouble) and that the matter involved labadzala.
This is according to a report which was delivered by Mkhiweni Member of
Parliament (MP) Michael ‘Ndlelayekuphila’ Masuku to members of the Swaziland
Women Economic Empowerment Trust (SWEET) from his constituency. The MP met with
the members of the organisation last Tuesday and he was giving them feedback as
they had given him a task to take the matter regarding their investment in SWEET
to Parliament in 2020. The organisation’s offices are in Manzini and they are
currently closed.
SWEET Microfinance (PTY) LTD was established in April 2015, registered under
certificate of incorporation No. 2235/2014. It is a company under SWEET, whose
Patron is Her Majesty the Queen Mother. It was established as one of the
national economic empowerment initiatives that emanated from the Eswatini
Women’s Decade Plan of Action of 2010. The members of SWEET had been demanding
that the people responsible for taking their monies should be taken to task and
their monies be returned, but in vain. It is said that some members from
Mkhiweni Inkhundla had invested over E5 000 each.
Meeting
During their meeting, the MP told the members that he registered the matter in
Parliament and when he told his colleagues about it, most of them, if not all,
shouted ‘elethu’ as they vowed to support it. He said the MPs mentioned that
the issue of SWEET affected all of them because some women in their
constituencies were members and they wanted their monies back. Furthermore,
according to the parliamentarian, the MPs allegedly said after the outbreak of
COVID-19, the affected women were unable to buy smartphones for their
school-going children to be able to pursue their studies online as most schools
adopted online teaching and learning.
He said according to the MPs, the women said with the money they had invested in
SWEET, they could be able to buy the cellphones and even laptops for their
children and feed their families during such trying times, where the economies
of the world, including the Kingdom of Eswatini, were hit hard by the effects of
the pandemic. He told the affected women that when registering the matter in
Parliament, he followed the laid down procedures as after talking to MPs, who
supported him, he got a seconder of the motion, Madlangemphisi MP Sibusiso
‘Scorpion’ Nxumalo. As a result, he said the motion was included in Notice
Paper No. 3/2020 which was issued and it had notices which were handed in up to
October 28, 2020 and it was under private members motions.
According to the notice paper, the mover was MP Masuku and was to be seconded by
MP Nxumalo. The motion, as written in the notice paper, reads: “To move that
the Minister for Finance (Neal Rijkenberg) should, within 30 days of passing of
this motion, table a report on the status of the Swaziland (Eswatini) Women
Economic Empowerment Trust (SWEET).” Thereafter, the MP said upon seeing that
the matter had been included in the notice paper, he prepared some notes and
evidence which would prove that the women under whose instruction he was
working, invested in SWEET.
However, he said as time went by, the matter was not included in the order paper
and when he asked around what could have happened, he alleged that some of the
people he consulted allegedly suggested that he withdraws the matter because he
was inviting trouble. He alleged that they said (in vernacular);
“Lolokutsintsako mhlonishwa utsintsa sikhehle sabomanyovu).” However, he
said he told them that he would not withdraw the matter because he was not going
to talk about Their Majesties, but he wanted the managers, who were working at
SWEET offices, to respond because they were the ones who received and managed
the people’s monies.
Project
He said he believed that when Their Majesties pioneer a project, they put in
place managers and they were the ones who should be held accountable and be put
behind bars if need be. The MP added that he believed that Their Majesties could
not take people’s monies because they always dreamt to see emaSwati living
better lives. Thereafter, he told the aggrieved members of SWEET that he then
approached the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Petros Mavimbela, and enquired
why the matter was not included in the order paper. He claimed that he also told
the Speaker that he believed that some people (women) from his constituency
(Mhlambanyatsi) were also affected. He alleged that the Speaker told him that
the matter was a difficult one.
Thereafter, he claimed that he approached the Minister of Finance, Neal
Rijkenberg, who also did not give a convincing report or feedback on the matter.
The MP said another person informed him that the matter involved the
authorities. “Lena ithinta bantu abadala,” the MP said he was told in
vernacular. Therefore, he told the members of SWEET that he was in a dilemma on
what to do next, thus he came back to them to report about the difficulties he
faced while pursuing their matter. He said he was ready to pull out and they
could explore other options to tackle the matter. He said he was worried when he
saw the matter about SWEET being discussed on social media platforms by some
political activists, who were of the notion that the Queen Mother allegedly took
the money that was invested by the members of the organisation.  He said he was
worried because he believed that the matter had nothing to with Their Majesties,
but the managers.