WHY SIKHANYISO MISSED PARLY OPENING

MBABANE – The Minister of Information, Communication and Technology Princess Sikhanyiso was conspicuously missing from the State Opening of Parliament last Friday.

This stood out because the princess had been reserved a seat next to the Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku and Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg, who were the only legislators seated in the first right-hand row next to His Majesty King Mswati III.
Name tags were allocated for each of the only 25 legislators who were allowed inside the House of Assembly in observance to the social distancing rules during the State Opening. As a result, the reserved seat remained unoccupied throughout the two- hour event.

Meanwhile, the minister, according to her Private Secretary Bernhard Reck, was unfortunately not able to make it to the official opening of Parliament “because of matters beyond her control that made it impossible for her to attend”. Reck, through a WhatsApp message, said the minister, however, did manage to follow all proceedings virtually. The minister’s assistant had been asked if it was true that the princess could not be part of the State Opening because she had arrived after all the gates had been closed by security personnel, which is the norm when Their Majesties attend events.

Prevented

However, Reck said the princess was not prevented from entering Parliament, instead, she had matters which were not specified that were beyond her control. The princess is also a member of the Senate and other senators observed the proceedings virtually from the Senate chamber. It should be noted that emakhosikati and emazinyane were also not in attendance and the seats normally occupied by the princesses and princes were only occupied by Liqoqo Chairperson Paul Dlamini and senior member of the royal family Prince Masitsela. On another note, the substantive minister has not been in Parliament since early last year as she was reported to be on leave. Since then, the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Mancoba Khumalo has been doubling as also the minister of ICT. However, the instrument allowing him to act elapsed at the end of January.

Meanwhile, Section 72 of the Constitution states that where a minister is absent from Eswatini or is by reason of illness or any other cause unable to exercise the functions of the office, the minister may after consultation with the prime minister delegate those functions. It states that the delegated functions should be maker in writing for a period not exceeding six months. However, Khumalo has acted for more than 12 months.  

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