ANTI-MHLONGO COUNCILLORS CONFESS TO RECEIVING BRIBES

dlamini.wex@gmail.com

MBABANE – The Municipal Council of Mbabane is in shambles.A number of councillors in the country’s capital are on record admitting during a council meeting that they had accepted bribes to vote against the renewal of Chief Executive Officer Gideon Mhlongo.

There are at least eight of the 12 councillors who have been fingered as being immersed in the plot to oust Mhlongo and each one of them was paid money at some point to carry out this plot.

17 meetings held at
different places

It has been indicated by some of the implicated councillors that at least 17 meetings were held at different places where the money exchanged hands.
Eveni Township, Pine Valley, Lobamba Lomdzala (Mahlanya) and a famous restaurant at Ezulwini are the places where most of these meetings took place.
During these meetings, the councillors reportedly smoked Indian cigarettes and cigars.

 This publication has listened to the council Hansard, where the councillors make the confessions and name and shame those who bribed them, including the amounts paid.
‘Explosive’ is the one word that best describes the allegations that the councillors made against each other.

So damning are the accusations by the councillors, one of them even noted that some of those who betrayed their colleagues could have been shot dead or ‘necklaced’ with burning tyres. Three councillors, who were in the previous council have been identified as ringleaders of the covert meetings. First to confess to being part of the meetings was one of the novice councillors who said the trio targeted all the new ones. He said they were eight in number and an agreement was made that they would all work in unison against the renewal of Mhlongo’s contract.

“In these meetings, we agreed that we won’t renew the CEO’s contract. We made a covenant together that we would not be able to work under CEO Gideon Mhlongo. When I took an oath as councillor, I was doing so with the mandate of getting rid of Mhlongo. Councillor X and Y need to explain to all of us how they then changed to vote for the renewal of the CEO’s contract.,” said the councillor. He further said X and Y made serious allegations to them against Mhlongo and these accusations cannot be repeated because of their defamatory nature. “During these meetings we were not short of anything as everything was provided for,” said the councillor. 

At this juncture, Councillor X stood up on a point of order and asked Mayor Zephania Nkambule to stop the councillor from continuing with the allegations. The mayor, however, discarded the point of order and said the councillor should be allowed to say all that he needed to say. Indeed the councillor continued: “I won’t keep quiet. I was told during the meeting at Eveni that even if it called for it to break our hands, the CEO must go. We were at Eveni. I want to assure my colleague councillors that I will not betray them and I haven’t changed from the decision we took together.”

He said the money they were given during that meeting was reportedly from councillor Z, who gave it to a former councillor to give to them.
“I took that money because we had agreed with my two colleagues (X and Y) that we will take the money and use it. But I ask that Councillor Z should respect me.

“We took the money and spent it, we were at Eveni.” said the councillor and stated that he could not then be expected to approve Mhlongo’s contract given the information he was given about the CEO, unless what they agreed on with the two councillors had changed.
At this moment, another councillor (to be called W) stood up and asked the mayor to stop the councillor but Nkambule again refused.

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