ESWATINI MOBILE SHAREHOLDERS’ COMPANY WORTH E5 MILLION

MANZINI – Hold your horses, the future looks brighter. This was how the anxiety among the over 15 000 members of the Eswatini Mobile LTD reward shareholders were calmed down yesterday after their first ever Annual General Meeting.

The company had, during inception, dangled a reward shareholding carrot to about 100 000 customers, whose only contribution was to purchase E600 airtime for their own use and qualify to be shareholders.

Yesterday, it emerged that there were only 15 995 emaSwati who cashed in on the package, which was the brainchild of slain Eswatini Mobile boss Victor ‘Maradona’ Gamedze. This means if the shareholders were to share the E5 million equally, each of them would get E312.

Rightly so, a moment of silence was observed by the over 2 000 shareholders who attended the meeting held at the main hall of the Mavuso Exhibition and Trade Centre.

The shareholders were informed that a shareholding company - Swazi Mobile Trust (MST) was registered for the 15 995 Eswatini Mobile subscribers  who qualified for the offer and it adds to the likes of Stage One, Cherry bite, SNPF, SIDC, Maphando and ESJ.

Incumbent Eswatini Mobile Chief Executive Officer CEO Jeff Penberton, Chief Customer Executive Gciniwe Fakudze, Registry of Companies Msebe Malinga and newly-appointed Curator of the Reward Shareholders Company MST, Bonginkhosi Magagula, were present at the meeting.

shareholders in a state
of confusion

Prior to the much-anticipated meeting, it emerged that the shareholders were in a state of confusion following the uncertainty over their shares in the company, ever since they were declared shareholders in January this year.

It was disclosed that there were attempts by some individuals to swindle the members, by forcing them to pay money to improve their share values. It was alleged that they did it while posing as agents of Eswatini Mobile.

Chief Customer Executive Gciniwe Fakudze then disclosed that upon discovering that,  they opted to register a company specifically for the Reward Shareholders with government, and the latter appointed lawyer Bonginkhosi Magagula as the Curator, who will hold the hands of the over 15 000 shareholders until they obtain their certificates.

“The value of the MST Company in the bigger Eswatini Mobile Limited cake is 1.0 per cent. Eswatini Mobile Limited is now valued at E500 million and the target is to invest more,  so that we can reach the E1billion mark where we can be in a position to break even,” Fakudze said.
Registrar of Companies’ Msebe Malinga explained the rationale behind the registration of the shareholders’ company and the appointment of Magagula as the curator.

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