CHIEF MGWAGWA UMPHAKATSI’S E300 000 FROM GOVT PROJECT

MBABANE – Chief Mgwagwa’s royal kraal is benefitting thousands of emalangeni through a project funded by government that is worth over E200 million.

This is the Lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation Project (LUSIP), which was financed through government funds and loans from international financiers.

Information established by this newspaper is that when this project started, the Swaziland Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise (SWADE) paid an establishment fee to the contractor to build some of the houses to house its staff during the construction of the project. SWADE is a government company established by the Government of Swaziland in 1999 to facilitate the planning and implementation of the Komati Downstream development Project (KDDP) and LUSIP, and any other large water and agricultural development project that Government may assign.

Information reaching the Times SUNDAY is to the effect that after the completion of the project, the company then sold some of the houses to SWADE while some were inherited by the Madlenya Umphakatsi.

SWADE bought the houses to accommodate its staff. It has also been unearthed that after the nine houses were given to the Madlenya Royal Kraal, it then decided to lease them out to employed people around Siphofaneni. Three years ago, each house was rented for E1 000 but from June this year, the rent will hike to E1 200, after the royal kraal sanctioned a 20 per cent increase.

Over the three-year period, the royal kraal has pocketed over E300 000
Some of the houses which are now also occupied by SWADE staff will also be taken by the royal kraal incase the former decides to permanently leave the chiefdom.

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