E44.6M SCHOLARSHIP LOANS RECOVERED

MBABANE – The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has managed to collect a total of E44 666 706.48 from Swazis who were awarded scholarships to further their studies.
This amount was recovered in the last five years.

In 2012, the ministry awarded a contract to three companies that would identify a mechanism to use in going after all beneficiaries of the government scholarship.
The three companies were namely; Trans Union Swaziland, DataNet and law firm SV Mdladla and Associates.

They were expected to formulate a feasible and effective recovery strategy for the billions of Emalangeni owed to government by scholarship defaulters.
Lutfo Dlamini, then Minister of Labour and Social Security, said the companies were expected to train the ministry’s officials and facilitate the effective recovery of the money owed to government.
Government had issued about E2.8 billion from the scholarship fund in 10 years.

That effectively meant that about E1.4 billion was owed to government because all beneficiaries were expected to pay back 50 per cent of their total sponsorship.
The former minister was quoted as having said, “We are aware that some people intentionally do not repay scholarship grants. We have collated data about such culprits and it is only a matter of time before we catch up with them.”
The minister (as he then was) further advised all defaulters to visit the ministry to make arrangements for payment.

“There has been a system put in place where defaulters who will report to our offices for payment arrangements will be exempt from paying extra costs of the recollection process.
“Otherwise, all defaulters will be charged interest so that the ministry can generate money to pay facilitators of the recollection process,” added Dlamini.

Apart from the threatened legal action, it was also said that government scholarship repayment defaulters would be blacklisted.
The former minister said then, that the process of blacklisting defaulters had already commenced.
“The issue of scholarship repayment defaulters is a priority; hence, we are already doing everything within our powers to get back every cent previously issued to the thousands of scholarship fund beneficiaries,” Dlamini had said.

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