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MPS BROKE, CAN’T HOST CHRISTMAS PARTIES

23/12/2019 08:47:00 BY STANLEY KHUMALO AND SABELO MAJOLA

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MBABANE – It is going to be a bleak Christmas for the electorate who had, over the years, been accustomed to free food and drinks.

This follows that the funders of the freebies, who have just had one out of five years in office, are too broke to afford supporting their constituents. It has, in recent years, become a norm that annually, Members of Parliament (MPs) would throw parties for the impoverished.

These parties were usually accompanied by gifts for the elderly and soccer tournaments for the youth. However, some of the MPs of the 11th Parliament claimed to be too broke to sponsor these events.

The politicians engaged by this publication said the economic status of the country was not conducive for them to afford such. In actual fact, some of them said they were too broke to fund these activities and they had received the same response when approaching business entities to sponsor their programmes.
In previous years, the elderly received food hampers and at some point the budget for the 10th Parliament MPs was around E300 000 for such activities. This money was from their personal accounts and or sponsors and not offered by government.

Despite this generosity exhibited by the politicians, their responsibilities are void of engaging in these activities.

Hampers

The hampers were inclusive of 5kg beans, mealie meal and 2 litres of cooking oil. Also, in the hampers there would be sugar and salt. On the other hand, the youth would be offered price money to play for in one-day sporting activities.

One of the politicians who said he was too broke to host an event or do something for his electorate was Matsanjeni South Constituency MP Bomber Mamba.
The politician said he was facing a hard time attaining resources to fund a party for the elderly. In vernacular, he said: “Tishaya umnyama!” He had anticipated hosting the elderly from the six chiefdoms of his constituency.

He said: “I had anticipated hosting 20 elderly citizens from each of the chiefdoms and offer them food hampers.”
When computing the number of the elderly per chiefdom and multiplying it by their number, Mamba would have supported 120 people this festive season.
Another MP who complained of being broke was Dumisani Mbhamali. The Somntongo Constituency MP said: “The economy is not doing well; so there is nothing much that I’ll do. I even told them that I am broke.”

Mbhamali said in previous celebrations, which were held a few months after he was voted into Parliament, he had hosted a soccer tournament.
On the other hand, Phondo MP Xolani ‘Bhiya’ Vilakati said he had not budgeted or lined up any Christmas event for the constituents because gathering people and doing something for them called for one to have the right budget but owing to the fiscal crisis that has seen stagnancy in salary reviews but shooting up of petrol and food items, it was not going to be possible to budget from his pocket.

Budget

“Everybody is aware of the economic situation, it has been deliberated on many times and we all know that events of that fashion require a reasonable budget so that everybody is catered for and finances don’t permit for such. The good thing about Christmas is that it has become an everyday lifestyle for many as previously we only got to eat rice and meat on the day but people eat good meals every day,” he said.

Vilakati advised people to spend wisely during Christmas because schools would be opening in January and parents would have to pay school fees. He said they should adopt the culture of saving in December because school fees were more important than spending on Christmas goodies.
Nkhaba Constituency MP Zakhele Magongo shared the same sentiments - on a reasonable budget - to have the constituents get together and celebrate Christmas, a budget that he said he didn’t have.

“I have only identified a few homesteads which are destitute and will be delivering food parcels to them but for a get-together it would have required a sound budget and considering the current economic situation, that has seen petrol prices and food items going up while the remuneration remained stagnant, I’m afraid I couldn’t budget for such,” he said.

Manzini South Constituency MP Thandi Nxumalo said she didn’t budget anything to give back to the electorate but she had nothing but praises for kitchen soup centres sponsor KFC, who assured them that they would be going to the soup kitchens to give children food parcels like they have been doing over the years.
“I must say that there is no get-together Christmas event that I have lined up for the constituents. Christmas is mainly for children and it gave me pleasure to know that KFC would be supporting us even this year to deliver food parcels to children at our soup kitchens around the constituency. Some of these children don’t have parents and they stay with their grandparents, who can’t afford to give them something to celebrate with on Christmas Day,” she said.

Nkwene Constituency MP Philemon Vulimpompi Nhleko submitted that he couldn’t have managed to fund a Christmas gathering for the electorate because he had already funded a football tournament, which was currently underway. He said had the funding been available to do both, he would have gladly done so but it was almost impossible to have both owing to the fiscal situation. “We only managed to do something for a few elderly in the constituency and I also funded a festive football tournament which is currently underway,” he said.

Elderly

Gilgal Constituency MP Kenneth Sandla Fakudze said when he held the Thanksgiving event at his constituency recently, he had to transport people to the inkhundla and considering that petrol prices had gone up, the car which was organised for that only transported the elderly and people with disabilities.

However, he said that didn’t go down well with the constituents as they complained that they had to travel from far to get to the inkhundla and organising a Christmas gathering would have proved futile considering that food items and petrol prices have recently gone up and there was no budget for that.

Maphalaleni MP Mabulala Maseko had a different response when quizzed on Christmas events he had planned for the electorate and stated that over the years, the constituency had not been having same because at this time of the year, they joined the royalty to celebrate the country’s biggest traditional event, Incwala Ceremony, and elders of the area (chiefs) always encouraged the populace to participate in the ceremony.

He said for that reason, hosting Christmas events was not a priority to them but they prioritised on the national event.
“Even football games are suspended at this time of the year because we encourage the people to join His Majesty and the entire nation in the Incwala Ceremony,” he said.

Shiselweni II MP Strydom Mpanza said the legislators were not homogeneous hence they differed in the way they did or planned things. He was making reference to the trends set by previous MPs of hosting parties for the constituents and giving food parcels to the elderly and destitute. He said given that it was optional to host the parties, it would be unfair to rate them according to what had been happening previously.

“Shiselweni II is very huge; we have nine imiphakatsi in total and catering for all of them can’t be easy. The only thing that I have done is identifying the families that are more vulnerable than others and give them food parcels,” he said.