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KING’S COMMAND NOT FOLLOWED

28/02/2021 00:07:00 BY MFANUKHONA NKAMBULE

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mfanukhona@times.co.sz

NTONDOZI - Where is the original letter which carries His Majesty’s royal command?

Mystery surrounds the whereabouts of an original letter from the King’s Office issuing His Majesty’s command to Tibiyo Taka Ngwane and government to procure four farms for landless people of Eluzintini, Ntondozi.

The letter, addressed to Tibiyo Taka Ngwane’s Managing Director Absalom Themba Dlamini is dated July 28, 2003. It was purportedly written by Paul Shabangu, who was an acting Chief Officer at the King’s Office at that time.

It is stated in the letter that the community of Ntondozi area under Chief Masuku II petitioned His Majesty the King for financial assistance to purchase four farms from a company known as Overdale Limited. Overdale Limited was represented by Graham Wright.

Reads the letter seen by the Times SUNDAY: “In response to the community’s request, the King commanded me to request the minister of natural resources and energy to dispatch a government valuator to go and evaluate the four properties.”

Shabangu, who was also a substantive Private Secretary to His Majesty the King before he retired from the public service, then issued the Head of State’s purported command: “His Majesty has now instructed me to forward the valuator’s report to you and to ask you to arrange the necessary funds to purchase the four properties for the Ntondozi community.”

the royal letter

In the royal letter, Shabangu allegedly said His Majesty the King enjoined that Tibiyo Taka Ngwane should purchase the properties in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture on a 50-50 basis. Shabangu was also an outstanding interpreter for the King.

The current interpreter, Sihle Dlamini, succeeded him. He disclosed in the letter that the market value for the four farms had been given as E2 091 000. The farm’s numbers are 240, 242, 243 and remainder of farm 97 in the Manzini region.

An impeccable source said the smallest of the four farms measured about 100 hectares.

“By copy of this letter, the Honourable Stella Lukhele, Minister for Agriculture and Co-operatives (now Ministry of Agriculture), is kindly requested to liaise with you on the logistics of raising funds necessary to jointly purchase the four farms on a 50-50 basis,” Shabangu, the messenger, said on behalf of the King.

Four months after the letter had been written, Dlamini, who is popularly known as AT, was appointed as prime minister. He was the prime minister until September 2008.

However, it has been established that the farm dwellers have found a copy of the letter. One of the elders of Ntondozi umphakatsi had kept it in his trunk. The copy of the letter was found in January 2021. This came about after officers at Tibiyo Taka Ngwane had failed to locate the original one from the files.

Umphakatsi’s record keeping

Shodi Mabuza, the Governor of the area, said, until it was produced last month, he was not aware that there was a letter legitimising the King’s command.

He said he assumed the King’s order was verbal. “We were negotiating with the owner of the farm to be tolerant of the people’s occupation of the farm until we were told that the King’s command was in writing,” he said.

He said they went to Tibiyo Taka Ngwane at Lomawa House, Lozitha, to enquire about it. It was nowhere to be seen until one of them produced the copy.

He said: “I want to thank our umphakatsi for record safekeeping. This is really commendable. Who had thought a copy of a letter written 17 years ago was still in our files? We are emaSwati, and we are sure we will resolve the matter amicably. We have to thank His Majesty for his generosity – bayethe wena waphakathi.”

The farm dwellers are said to have taken it with them to Lomawa House where the officer entrusted to handle the matter was reportedly indisposed.

Due to the COVID-19 partial lockdowns, they have not been able to return to Lozitha to conclude the talks with Tibiyo Taka Ngwane. What is now a cause for concern is that they say a certain man came to the farm to tell them that he has bought a portion of it. They said the man told them that he wanted to build a clinic and high school.

He is also said to have ordered them to vacate the place or a bulldozer would demolish their houses, something which they said they would resist by all possible means.

In an interview, Dlamini, who is popularly known as AT, said it was the first time he heard of this matter, especially the revelation that there was a letter commanding him to secure funds necessary to procure the farms.

He recalled that Tibiyo Taka Ngwane purchased some farms at Ntondozi, but did not have information at hand if he was actually referring to the properties in question.

It must be said that the MD’s office received the letter on Thursday, and Dlamini was yet to go through it and form an impression about its contents. When Dlamini was told that the market value at E2 million in 2003 was cheap or rather affordable, he said that was a lot of money during those times.

He was told that it was possible the market value had gone up. “We need to peruse files to see if we have such correspondence, but I doubt because you cannot act fast on what the King says we must do. You cannot defy the King, you can’t. That’s why I’m persuaded to say we don’t have such correspondence,”

The representative of the company that owned the farms, Wright, said the letter was for his attention, and pleaded that the issue be not publicised because it would upset the negotiation process. He was not in a position to explain why the letter was kept at Ntondozi and who took it there.