SIKHANYISO MUST PAY BACK THE MONEY - SOME EMASWATI

MANZINI - Some emaSwati want the Minister of ICT, Princess Sikhanyiso, to pay back the money she earned while away from work.

To achieve this, the Swaziland People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) launched an online petition where its members are calling upon the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) minister to repay her remuneration for the period she was on an elongated leave. The movement claims the minister was on maternity leave yet government had officially said she took leave because she was indisposed. The minister, before returning to work last Thursday, had been away for about 14 months. Her return coincided with Hosea Constituency Member of Parliament (MP) Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza’s question on why the minister was still not at work as the Constitution was flouted.

Wondered

Mabuza also wondered how long the duration of a maternity leave was. The legislator had stated that every person should be accountable, especially if they were being paid through taxpayers’ money. The petition was launched in the political party’s vehicle of communication; Impalampala FM (Facebook page), at 6:43am yesterday and by 7pm, it had reached 28 204 people. In the petition, which is titled; ‘People, the demand is that the princess should pay back the money she pocketed over the aforementioned period’, SPLM’s argument was that the money, which they claimed amounted to about E500 000, was allegedly maternity leave pay. However, independent calculations made by this publication for the said period, reflected that between January 2020 when it was announced that the minister was on extended leave and March 2021, she was paid a sum of E926 368.80.

This is because Cabinet ministers’ basic salary was E61 757.92 per month; however, in August last year, it was increased to E63 610.65. This back pay was backdated to April 1, 2020 and resulted in her getting E16 674 in that month as a difference that had been outstanding following that a cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) of three per cent was added to ministers’ remuneration. Meanwhile, Vusi Shongwe, the founding President of the political party, confirmed the online petition and said it was not a personal vendetta against the minister or anyone as they were not picking on the Inkhosatane.

“We are just saying this as a matter of principle and want her to pay back this money, which is from the taxpayers, because the Employment Act of 1980 says an employee is entitled to a maternity leave of three months,” the president said. 

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