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HOUSING’S E1.9M MORTUARY CARS CONTROVERSY

27/05/2018 10:51:00 BY MFANUKHONA NKAMBULE

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MBABANE – Are we dreaming?

This is a question being asked by Phiwayinkhosi Mabuza, the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, whose ministry has been given E1.9 million to buy four mortuary vehicles, a project, which, in fact, is outside its mandate.
“Singenelana kuphi nema mortuary tsine (what business have we with mortuaries),” said the minister in an interview. He was asked to react to the statement of receipts and payments for the year ended March 31, 2017, which reflects that a sum of E1 920 000 was allocated to his ministry to procure the vehicles. Even though the housing ministry claimed the project did not exist, it looked like, based on the financials, somebody withdrew E400 900 from the budgeted fund. The money that has not been utilised amounted to E1 569 152. Mabuza said he was not privy to information pertaining to this non-existent project in his ministry. He promised to investigate the issue because it was the first time he was hearing about this project.

According to a funeral undertaker’s website, a mortuary vehicle is used to carry a body of a deceased in a coffin/casket from a church or funeral home to a cemetery. In the funeral trade, they are also called hearses or funeral coaches.
Clifford Mamba, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, was also not sure how the money could have possibly been allocated to the ministry as he was not aware of such a project under his ministry.
He, too, wondered how his ministry could have been given money to purchase such vehicles because mortuaries were outside their mandate. Mamba said the Ministry of Finance could be in a better position to give clarity on the matter.
The PS said he was going to find out from his officials if there was indeed an allocation of E1.9 million for the said project. “The ministry of finance, which gives us some money according to our budgets, should know where money is being channelled and for what reason,” said the PS.

It was not clear if the budgeting team confused the four mortuary vehicle project with that of the Fire and Emergency Services entitled “mobile satellite fire station.” The Fire and Emergency Services is under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. A budget of E16 million was approved for the construction of mobile fire stations, a project, which has seen the actual expenditure of E7.1 million. In the current financial year, E3.5 million was set aside for the completion of the Big Bend Satellite Fire Station and construction of another one in Mankayane.