10 ELECTED MPS TO BE MINISTERS

MBABANE – At least 10 of the elected 59 Members of Parliament (MPs) shall be ministers.

This shall be in accordance with Section 67 (3) of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini, which provides that half the number of ministers should be appointed from among the elected members of the House. Cabinet has 20 ministers – including the prime minister and his deputy. In the event the prime minister and deputy prime minister do not regard themselves as ministers, it would mean His Majesty the King would appoint nine ministers from among the members of the House.

Reads Section 67 (2) and (3) of the Constitution: “The King shall appoint ministers from both chambers of Parliament on the recommendation of the prime minister. At least half the number of ministers shall be appointed from among the elected members of the House.”

It must be said that former Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini is on record that he and his deputy could not be counted among the ministers. The argument arose when this publication questioned the constitutional composition of Cabinet.
The Constitution serves as the supreme law of the country.

However, Obed Dlamini, the late former Prime Minister and member of Liqoqo, differed with Sibusiso’s definition of minister. Obed argued that a prime minister was also considered as a minister and the difference was that he was senior and chairman of Cabinet meetings.

The prime minister is also the leader of government business in Parliament, according to the supreme law.  In the 10th Parliament, Cabinet had nine ministers appointed from among the elected members of the House. These were Phiwayinkhosi Mabuza, David ‘Cruiser’ Ngcamphalala, Phineas Magagula, Mduduzi ‘Small Joe’ Dlamini and Patrick Magobetane Mamba, who was relieved of his duties on medical grounds in October 2016.

Mamba was replaced by an elected MP in Owen Nxumalo. Nxumalo represented Manzini South Inkhundla. In the general elections for the 11th Parliament, he lost to Thandi Nxumalo.
Other ministers who came from among the elected MPs were Gideon Dlamini, who was dismissed and subsequently succeeded by Christopher Gamedze, the former Mafutseni MP.

Gamedze did not contest the 2018 general elections. Dumsani Ndlangamandla was an MP for Ngudzeni when the King appointed him minister of Information, Communication and Technology. He, too, did not contest the 2018 general elections.
Moses Vilakati and Jabulani Mabuza were both Members of Parliament representing Ntondozi and Pigg’s Peak Constituencies respectively when Ingwenyama elevated them to the ministerial positions.

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