NEW TINKHUNDLA TO COST GOVT E126M

MBABANE – It is often said that development comes at a price; for government, the quotation for the new Tinkhundla Centres stands at E126 million.

The Minister of Tinkhundla Administration and Development Mduduzi ‘Small Joe’ Dlamini, in an interview yesterday, said the budget for the construction of one Inkhudla was about E7 million.

According to the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), there are five new Tinkhundla centres that need to be constructed, three existing ones that have no structures, and 10 that have to be relocated. This tallies the number to 18 Tinkhundla at E7 million each.

Justifying the cost, Dlamini said the structures would accommodate more government departments to facilitate decentralisation. He explained that people would be able to get all government services from the centres. He said this was part of the King’s directive which they had to execute and added that they were grateful to Their Majesties for the additional Tinkhundla as that would ease service delivery.

“The new structures will cost around E6 million to E7 million. They will accommodate almost all essential services for people,” Dlamini said.
The minister said they would consider the availability of government funds and this did not mean anything was conclusive. He said they were still considering some logistics on the matter.

Two weeks ago, the EBC announced the names of the five new Tinkhundla namely, Phondo, Siphocosini, Nkomiyahlaba, Gilgal, and Mashayekhatsi, which will increase the number of tinkhundla centres to 59 following the merging of Hlane and Dvokodvweni tinkhundla. The EBC also announced that three existing Tinkhundla would be built while 10 would be relocated. When Dlamini was asked whether all these tinkhundla structures would be built this year, he declined to comment.

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