MINISTER NOW IN REAL TROUBLE

MBABANE – Gideon Dlamini, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade, risks being jailed for two years, for allegedly disclosing that he was being investigated by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).

According to the Prevention of Corruption Act of 2006, the minister can be taken to task if it is proven that he indeed divulged information on the alleged investigation. 
Based on Section 18 (a) and (b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the commission’s investigations should be kept confidential and private.

Any disclosure of the ACC’s investigation is illegal in terms of the Act.
The Act also establishes the ACC.
In an interview, the minister said he was not aware that he should have not divulged information on the investigations.

“First and foremost, let me be frank. It did cross my mind that the disclosure of the investigation might be illegal but seeing the newspapers, particularly the Swazi Observer, talking about the same issue over and over again, I was really influenced to shed light on the issue,” the soft-spoken minister said. Dlamini was once rumoured to be tipped for the post of Prime Minister in 2000 alongside Solomon Dlamini, a former diplomat and Cabinet Minister. The minister revealed the issue was first brought to the limelight by one of the country’s newspapers a couple of weeks ago.

Therefore, he said, he commented on the issue in response to the allegations levelled against him through the publications.
Dlamini, also an MP for Mkhiweni, was quoted confirming that he was being investigated for his involvement in an online shopping mall called Swaziland Traders Link.
Traders Link is a private company and government has no shareholding. 

In the articles, he did mention that he was being investigated by the ACC.
On Thursday, he is said to have informed parliamentarians of the same investigations.
Any person contravening Section 18 (a) and (b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act of 2006 is guilty of an offence and liable to a two-year jail term. Alternatively, he or she can be ordered by the court to pay a fine of E20 000. Reads the Section: “Any person who, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse – (a) discloses to any other person who is the subject of an inquiry or investigation under this Act the fact that, that other person is a subject to that inquiry or investigation or any details of that inquiry or investigation.

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