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ELECTED MPS ELIGIBLE FOR PM POSITION

28/10/2018 05:15:00 BY BHEKISISA MAGONGO

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MBABANE – Has His Majesty King Mswati III finally opened a door for the Prime Minister to come from the elected MPs?

On Wednesday, when addressing over 5 000 emaSwati who attended a much anticipated Sibaya gathering at the Ludzidzini gigantic national Cattle Byre, the King appeared to have opened a window of hope for a change.

The nation had come anticipating the pronouncement of the new prime minister, only to be told that the process had been deferred to yesterday.
In between that period, the King gave the nation a rare opportunity to lobby for the candidacy of the new prime minister.

Section 67 of the country’s Constitution vests the powers to appoint the PM with the King acting on the recommendation of his Advisory Council.
The article is specific in stating that the candidate for the position of the premier should come from the House, which is the Assembly that is dominated by elected legislators from the 59 constituencies. According to the clause, the King has a minimum pool of 68 candidates from which to choose the PM, the figure excludes the other candidates that are currently not members of the House of Assembly, who could be considered to fill the void left by Prince Hlangabeza who was moved to Senate.

This clause of the Constitution has not been fully utilised when appointing the prime minister, because while the candidate has come from the House of Assembly, all of the previous candidates have come from the 10 appointed MPs.
In some instances, there had to be switching of candidates from the House of Assembly to the Senate to give way to an appointed PM.

Prince Hlangabeza switching

The same has occurred this year following the switching of Prince Hlangabeza from the original 10 King’s appointees to Senate to leave space for the PM who was announced yesterday afternoon at the Sibaya. And the procedure since 1967 has always been that the prime minister would be a Dlamini male. There has been no explanation on the rationale to confine the candidature of prime ministers to the above.

The first four PM’s were princes. Prince Makhosini was appointed the first PM by His Majesty King Sobhuza II and was succeeded by Prince Maphevu in 1976, who was followed by Prince Mabandla and then Prince Bhekimphi, who ushered in the kingdom to the coronation of His Majesty King Mswati III in April 25, 1986. The subsequent two PMs were Sotsha Dlamini and Obed Mfanyana Dlamini, who are both late. Prince Mbilini, who is also late succeeded them before his three-year reign was cut short by the appointment of the late Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini, who had the longest reign in the position in his two spells in 1996-2003 and 2008-2018.

In between those stints was a five year reign for incumbent Tibiyo TakaNgwane Managing Director Absalom Themba Dlamini in 2003-2008.
When addressing the nation on Wednesday at Sibaya, His Majesty King Mswati III opted to seek the assistance of the citizenry in choosing the right candidate for the position of Prime Minister. He could not be faulted given that the country was submerged in serious economic challenges that have triggered some industrial ripples with teachers and civil servants demanding their Cost-of-Living-Adjustment (CoLA) no matter what.