CIRCULARS USED TO PAY CABINET - WALTER BENNETT

MBABANE – Has Cabinet taken the country for a ride? This question arose after businessman Walter Bennett accused it of enriching itself through circulars.

Bennett made these accusations during a farewell function of two retiring teachers of KaSchiele Primary School.
The pensioners, who were showered with gifts and praises during the well attended function are Siphiwe Hlophe and Siphiwe Vilakati.

The businessman, who was the guest speaker, alleged that Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini, formulated a strategy of remunerating itself by using circulars.
Unlike civil servants and other employees, he said government did not want to use the bargaining unit.

Negotiating

“These people are aware that there should be a negotiating table when talking about remuneration, but these cunning people prefer using circulars,” the former senator lamented.

He said when civil servants wanted a cost-of-living adjustment, they were told that coffers had run dry but Cabinet just wrote a circular and got packages without taking into account the country’s fiscal status.

Further, he stressed that the unionists were subjected to robust interrogation by the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Public Services, Evart Madlopha, economists and accountants, only to be told government did not have money.

He hailed His Majesty King Mswati III for establishing the Royal Commission, whose main objective was to look at the welfare of politicians.

“Ingwenyama isilamulele kuloko (The King has saved us from this),” Bennett said to a rousing applause.
The commission was established in March this year.
He expressed hope that the commission would take a lot of things into consideration before awarding politicians and emabandla packages.

He advised emaSwati that they would be allowed to table their concerns and views by the commission.
“Cabinet is milking the country dry such that even if Jesus came back, we would not even be able to purchase a cold drink for him,” he said in jest.

Handshake

Percy Simelane, Government Spokesperson, said to the best of his recollection, Cabinet put together Circular No.1 of 2013, which neither had BMWs for ministers, the PM’s house nor the handshake in the form of Mercedes Benz  similar to the one he uses.
He said this Circular had put ex-prime ministers’ living allowances at E10 000 per month.

“It was people like Walter Bennett who caused the replacement of Circular No.1, saying it was evil enough to cushion the enrichment of Cabinet,” Simelane claimed.

He further clarified that experts from a neighbouring country and not Cabinet were engaged, and they recommended the structure that was in Circular No.2 of 2013.

He said Circular No.1 was kicked out after the nation was made to believe it was an evil instrument.
“I want to believe that all normal thinking people in this country know how Circular No.2 of 2013 replaced Circular No.1 of 2013. Only slow learners may have a problem understanding this very simple operation and use it for campaigning for something we don’t know at their own peril,” said Simelane.

Meanwhile, Bennett also suggested that the country needed to put its house in order by reviewing the national Constitution adding that it was high time this was done.
He said his opinion was informed by the challenges faced by Eswatini since the inception of Free Primary Education (FPE).

Giving a brief background, he recounted that the FPE was conceived by the national Constitution, Section 29, which states that every liSwati child should be educated up to Grade Seven for free, three years after the Constitution has been commissioned
Urging
About three years after the Constitution was blessed by His Majesty King Mswati III, ex-miners took government to court urging that Section 29 had been overlooked. The then Chief Justice, Michael Ramodibedi ruled in the favour of the ex-miners, that FPE should be introduced.
Against this background, Bennett said he was one of those who said the judges were right – ‘let the judges pronounce what is law’.
When the ruling was made, he said he pointed out that the King had already established the Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Fund in 2003 with a kitty of E60 million.
Failing to hide his frustration, he described the ex-miners’ act as hatred against the country.
Even though the ex-miners were victorious, the businessman said reality was that money should be paid out to run the schools.
“It is one thing to pronounce the ruling, and it is another thing to find the money to run the schools.”
Making comparison to South Africa, he said instead of passing such a judgment, judges would first take the country into consideration.
They would know that such could land the country in trouble, Bennett added.
Raise
“They would have given government a notice that after two years, it must present a plan on how it will raise the funds for such endeavour. This is because money does not grow on trees. It was wrong that we were forced to take this route.”
He said there were many indications that something did not go well when looking at the current situations in schools around the country.
“Even if you plan to have a child as a married couple, you prepare for that child. Govt has never given birth to a child, where do you expect her to get the money from?” he wondered.
The judge should have stated that it was subject to affordability when making the ruling, the former parliamentarian said.
He wondered if this was the free education the country wanted.
“The Europeans say, nothing in life is free, the only thing that is free on earth is cheese in a mouse trap,” he quoted an adage.
By taking the legal route, he said the ex-miners wanted to make government a laughing stock.
Reviewing
Besides reviewing Section 29, the nation should also consider looking at how principal secretaries were employed.
He mentioned that the Constitution stipulates that principal secretaries should be employed on contractual basis.
“To date, they are not employed on contract. If someone is not on a  leash, he does anything he wants. If some of them were on contract, it would have been better.”
Bennett also pointed out that Chapter 5 of the Constitution talked about how the country could be governed and also the role of the prime minister.
“It states that the PM should at least once a year table a report in Parliament on the principles of state. Parliament just let him off the hook. His argument was that he did not present the reports because the MPs would rubbish it. The Constitution does not say you should not go there because they will not accept your report,” he argued.
Amended
He also raised the issue of women representation in Parliament, saying it had been overlooked in the past. The government spokesman said the businessman was well informed about how a Constitution could be amended because he was once a Senator.
“You don’t shout from the street lest people mistake you for an imbecile, but you lobby your Members of Parliament who then raises it in the chambers,” Simelane advised.
He said legislators would then follow laid down constitutional processes in collaboration with the Executive.

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