Times Of Swaziland: ALPHEOUS OFFSIDE - BUSINESS COMMUNITY

ALPHEOUS OFFSIDE - BUSINESS COMMUNITY
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Nonduduzo Kunene on 09/12/2022 08:54:00


MBABANE- The business community has said government spokesperson Alpheous
Nxumalo had no business to question  from disassociating themselves from the
King.
The business community said the government spokesperson’s utterances were
uncalled for and sounded like threats. This came after on Wednesday evening,
Nxumalo issued a statement, saying that government noted an ongoing trend in
which business owners in the country boldly stated that their businesses did not
have ties with the King.
In the statement, Nxumalo questioned why most businesspeople said they were not
in partnership with the King in their business ventures. He had registered
concern that most of the people who were making the disclaimers had businesses
on Eswatini Nation Land (ENL) in the country where the overseer was the King.
The business community felt that Nxumalo did not understand the business owners
who spoke, in different occasions, about their businesses not having royal ties.
Chairperson of the Federation of Swaziland Business Community (FESBC) in the
Hhohho Region Johannes Manikela said he was curious about the grounds of the
government spokesperson’s utterances.
He said it was clear that he misunderstood the business owners. “Nxumalo was
offside; in fact he completely misunderstood the message,” he said. He said
Nxumalo’s statement implied that the businesspeople acted as if they ran
businesses from their own places. He said none can disassociate themselves from
the King, as long as they were in the country, where he was the ruler.
Manikela said the businessman was protecting his business from being attacked
over claims that the King was a shareholder or a director of the business.
“There are rumours which linked the authorities to being directors of some
business in the country,” he said.
The chairperson said the businessman was only correcting the rumours and
protecting his ‘blood and sweat’.
Manikela said they would not stop their members from telling the public about
the directors and ownership of their businesses, more especially in this current
situation in the country, where businesses linked to certain people were targets
of arson attacks.
‘Explanation might not be acceptable to everyone’
MBABANE – Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo says the explanation given
by the business community may not be accepted by all members of society.Nxumalo
said government was not politicising or indirectly threatening businesses, but
that government only sought to understand what drove their declaration and
disassociation from the King.
“Government was not inferring anything more than just to get an understanding
of the reasoning behind the disclaimers, which had taken a fashionable trend,”
he said. He said since they had explained their logic behind the disclaimers, it
was clear on government’s side. He noted, however, that despite their
explanation, they should bear in mind that not everybody would agree or be
convinced. “What drove government to communicate the message was and is simply
to understand the disclaimers and the disassociation point of view,” he said.