Home | News | 21 POLITICIANS TO GET VEHICLES WORTH E1.2M EACH

21 POLITICIANS TO GET VEHICLES WORTH E1.2M EACH

30/11/2020 06:41:00 BY STANLEY KHUMALO

Font size:

MANZINI – As the country struggles to meet its basic needs, at least 21 politicians will each get a vehicle worth E1.2 million.

In fact, the beneficiaries shall be 20 politicians and the attorney general (AG). The politicians are the 18 Cabinet ministers, the Senate president, and the House of Assembly Speaker.

According to a memorandum, whose signatory is the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Finance, Sizakele Dlamini, addressing the secretary to Cabinet, all PSs and all heads of departments; the Cabinet ministers, presiding officers and the AG, shall each be bought a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado 3.0D VX, while the previous politicians were chauffeured in the luxurious BMW X5.

Incumbent

In essence, this means that it was cheaper to buy official vehicles for Cabinet ministers in the 10th Parliament compared to what will be spent on the incumbent.

Cabinet ministers in the 2013-2018 term of office had their official vehicles benchmarked at E800 000 each yet with the current administration; the value of their vehicles has been put at a maximum cost of E1.2 million each. Government, therefore, is expected to fork out an amount of E25.2 million to purchase vehicles for the 21 officials, while E14.4 million was spent on the preceding team.

The memorandum by the PS in the ministry of Finance is dated November 18 and titled ‘Addendum to Finance Circular No. 2 of 2013: Terms and Conditions of Service of Swaziland (Eswatini) Politicians (10th Parliament)’.

According to the PS, the effective date of the memorandum is October 11, 2018. Dlamini further informed the senior personnel in government that the administration would be responsible for the annual running cost, insurance and maintenance of the automobiles; but this expenditure would not be exceeding E300 000 annually.

The PS said: “The total cost for the provision of the vehicle, insurance, maintenance and running cost is, therefore, E1 500 000.”

Ownership

She said the vehicles shall be deemed to have been made available from the beginning of the term of office and ownership of the vehicles would be transferred to the politicians and the AG at the end of the 11th Parliament.

At this instance, Dlamini said: “Government’s responsibility for the motor vehicles shall cease.”

Worth noting is that the Phil Mnisi-led Royal Commission, which was tasked with looking into the terms and conditions of service of the 11th Parliament politicians, had in the suspended Finance Circular No. 3 of 2019 benchmarked the vehicles for the politicians and the AG at E950 000.

However, in the beginning of November 2020, this publication gathered that the Royal Commission had been assigned to look into the mode of transport of the politicians using Finance Circular No.2 of 2013.

Ownership

The revised figure depicts an addition of E5 250 000 when comparing with the initial recommendations made by the Royal Commission. On the other hand, it is an increment of E8.4 million when comparing with the initial recommendations of Finance Circular No. 2 of 2013.

This is because about six years ago, government spent E16.8 million on vehicles for the same number of politicians.

It should be noted that since then, the market value of the same automobiles has increased a number of times due to inflation as the BMW X5 xDrive 30d xLine currently retails at E1 329 200, according to South African online magazine - Carmag.

Also, the memorandum was mum on official vehicles for the Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini and his deputy, Themba Masuku. The premier is currently chauffeured in a Mercedes Benz S350 and a Range Rover which were used by his predecessor while the DPM is driven in a Mercedes Benz CLS 2.5 and a Mercedes Benz GLE 2.5.

If further did not address the mode of transport to be allocated to their spouses, which according to Finance Circular No. 2 of 2013, states that ‘Government shall provide a pool vehicle and a driver for the spouse of the prime minister and deputy prime minister. The motor vehicle will not be of the same status as the prime minister and deputy prime minister’s official vehicles’.

On the other hand, government has saved on the value of the vehicles to be procured in the past two years. This follows that upon assuming office, the executive found that about 12 Cabinet ministers had Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) rented for them at E3 500 per day, each.

Rental

Stopping the rental of these vehicles saved government over E31 206 000. The vehicles were rented by government from Woodford Car Hire in Mbabane and they were first seen during the swearing-in ceremony of the legislators held at the Cabinet Offices - Hospital Hill. The ceremony was held on November 6, 2018.

Given the fiscal crisis which has been dominant in the tenure of the 11th Parliament, to-date, no vehicles were procured by government for the incumbent Executive.

Instead, Cabinet ministers have had to use their personal vehicles while executing national duties because most of the government vehicles that were offered to them are in a deplorable state.

Upon cancelling the renting of the SUVs, some ministers were given Chevrolet Trailblazers, which were part of a fleet bought in 2013 by the 10th Parliament and some of them were used by the then ministers whenever their official vehicles had mechanical challenges.

Meanwhile, despite the savings made, the country’s economy has not performed well in recent years and worsening the situation was the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a partial lockdown in the country, minimising trade.

Payment

The slow growth in the economy resulted in government failing to meet its obligations, which among them was the payment of school suppliers, the shortage of medication and personal protective equipment (PPE) needed by personnel in health facilities, the procurement of fuel for government’s fleet, among many.

When the Communications Officer of the Ministry of Finance, Setsabile Dlamini, was contacted on Friday regarding the procurement of vehicles for politicians, she said her comment was the addendum whose signatory was the principal secretary in the ministry.