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MATSAPHA COMMISSION OF INQUIRY QUESTIONED

22/02/2020 09:37:00 BY SIBUSISO ZWANE

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MANZINI– The integrity of the Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of Matsapha Town Council has been put in the spotlight.

The Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of Matsapha Town Council was appointed by the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Prince Simelane.
In its findings, which were presented by the minister, it found that in the recruitment of the Corporate Services Manager (CSM), a post which is occupied by Princess Kholwaphi, council ended up usurping the powers of the consultant they hired to do the conscription.

Again, the commission said it found that the eventual winner (Princess Kholwaphi) had a relationship with the former Chairman, Sandlane Zwane, who was part of the recruitment panel but he never declared his interest.

Furthermore, the commission said it found fraudulent misrepresentation to council by the incumbent CSM on her academic qualifications.
On that note, the commission recommended that the academic credentials of the incumbent CSM should be evaluated and that the matter should be referred to appropriate authorities, which were the police and Anti Corruption Commission (ACC). This recommendation followed the main one, which was that the minister should fire the councillors, based on their findings.

Implementation

Following the commission’s report and the implementation matrix, which was carried out by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, the CSM took it upon herself to prove her case to the minister.
This publication has it in authority that on February 14, 2020, the CSM wrote a letter to the minister and attached it to the Town Clerk of Matsapha Town Council, Lucky Sukati.

In the letter which was titled; ‘Commission of Inquiry Report of 2019, Matsapha Town Council’, the CSM attached certified copies of both her Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Bachelor of Commerce. She said this was to prove that she was qualified for the job.
“I humbly request the minister to order cessation of the current disciplinary process that are a culmination of my systematic victimisation based on unfounded allegations, that I am not qualified for the CSM position at Matsapha Town Council,” reads part of the letter.

Meanwhile, the Communications Officer in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Lungelo Nkambule, asked this publication to send its questions via WhatsApp and they were sent at 12:47pm yesterday. However, when she was called later on the day, her mobile phone rang unanswered and she did not reply to WhatsApp messages which were sent to her at 3:59pm and 6:03pm yesterday.
When this publication tried to verify the submission of the letter and certified copies of the princess’ academic certificates with the Town Clerk, Lucky Sukati, he asked not to comment on the matter.

Verify

On the other hand, this publication also gathered that the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) Fraud Department has been roped in to verify the academic certificates. In fact, the princess also wrote a report of what transpired during the Commission of Inquiry to the police and asked the law enforcers to verify the certificates, which she attached to the letter.

Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati said the relevant department was working on the matter.
On the same note, the princess said she was working on clearing her name. However, she asked not to comment further about the matter, pending the issuing of the report by the police, fraud department. The commission said established that according to the consultancy report, the princess filed an affidavit instead of an MBA certificate, which according to them suggested that she was unqualified for the position.

However, other former councillors submitted that the affidavit which was brought by the princess suggested that she had an MBA certificate, but the challenge was that when it was issued, her name was wrongly spelt, thus it had to be taken back to be corrected.
It is worth mentioning that after the Commission of Inquiry had issued its report, which had recommendations, the minister used it to fire the councillors and replaced them with an interim council.