JIMMY HLOPHE WINS SENATE ELECTIONS

LOBAMBA - “At no cost,” was what a female MP shouted in the House of Assembly as soon as Jimmy Mandlenkhosi Hlophe was announced as the winner of the Senate elections yesterday.

Hlophe, who has described himself as a senior citizen, beat his competitor, Bongani Comfort Matsebula by 10 votes as the results were announced by Speaker Petros Mavimbela.

The two were the only candidates who eventually contested for the position to replace the late senator Mike Temple after one of the candidates, Sifiso Nkhundleni Mabuza, was disqualified from the race.

Investigations

Clerk to Parliament Ndvuna Dlamini, who was also the returning officer, announced that Mabuza did not meet the taxation requirement following that investigations had uncovered that he had for years been allegedly violating the Income Tax Order 21 of 1975.
It was further revealed that Mabuza had obtained the Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) on the basis of allegedly giving false information to the Commissioner of Taxes.

For one to qualify for a Senate seat, the person had to be in compliance with Section 96 and 97 of the Constition and Senate Elections Act of 2013.
The requirements, according to the Constitution, are that the candidate should be an Eswatini citizen and qualify to be a voter, that he or she is above the age of 18 years and that person is a registered voter.

Hlophe and Matsebula were, according to the police and vetting report, cleared while Mabuza was disqualified on the basis that he had allegedly given false information on his taxation issues.

As a result, on August 3, 2020, the commissioner general of the Eswatini Revenue Authority (SRA), Dumisa Masilela, revoked the TCC.
Hlophe’s victory came as a surprise to many following the fact that during the nominations, he and another candidate, Ngomyayona Gamedze, had received only one nomination while Mabuza had led the pack with 26 nominations.

Money

Gamedze alleged that he was withdrawing from the race because some MPs had demanded money in order for them to vote for him. In his letter of withdrawal of Gamedze had described the election as one which would go to the highest bidder.
Another Senate hopeful who was disqualified from the race was Jacques Potgieter, who according to the Elections and Boundaries Commission, was found to be an unregistered voter.

The elections were initially supposed to be held last week Monday, however, the police, through National Commissioner William Tsitsibala Dlamini, had stated that they were not done with the vetting process.

However, yesterday the national commissioner of police said he was pleased to finally submit the vetting report in respect of the three candidates.
Meanwhile, when announcing the results, the Speaker said Hlophe had recorded the majority vote of 40 while Matsebula managed to get 30.

A total of 70 MPs, who included  Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini participated in the process which took just a little under an hour.
At first, most of the ballot papers were for those who had voted for Matsebula, however, when he reached 18 votes, the scales started tilting in Hlophe’s way.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: