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‘BUY CASH’S PLEA AFTER OVER E100M LOSS

19/10/2021 08:42:00 BY ASHMOND NZIMA

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MBABANE – “My humble request to all emaSwati is that they do not destroy the business.”

Minister of Agriculture Jabulani Mabuza made the passionate plea to emaSwati, as damages to his businesses due to arson attacks soared to over E100 million.
The minister is a businessman and director at the various Buy Cash Hardware stores spread across the country. Reacting to the latest attack of his Buy Cash outlet in Bhunya this past Sunday, the minister said he was concerned that the same businesses that were supporting emaSwati were unnecessarily a target.

Briefing

He was speaking in his capacity as a businessman during a heartrending press briefing at Hilton Garden Inn yesterday. “I had emaSwati at heart when I started to have branches deep in the rural areas so that they can buy building materials close, thus saving transport costs,” he said. The minister stressed that through the business, which he started with his wife back in 2003, even before he thought of being a legislator; he created employment opportunities both direct and indirectly. Mabuza who, is also a Member of Parliament (MP) for Pigg’s Peak Constituency, said he had over 600 employees, who were mainly emaSwati.

The minister, who repeatedly shared about his devotion to God, said as far as he was concerned, he did nothing wrong to be subjected to such inhumane treatment, saying he was doing his best even in his constituency. His success projects for Pigg’s Peak, he shared, included community halls for the various communities on top of paying schools fees and sponsoring football teams in initiatives said to be worth at least a million Emalangeni per year.

“By God’s grace, I’ve helped all my family members, as I’m the first one who started the business. I supported all of them financially and otherwise to start their own businesses,” he said. The minister insisted that he suspected no one to be behind the attacks but he just thought that he was just a victim of angry emaSwati just like it was the case with the other businesses. He underlined that no business deserved to be destroyed.

Meanwhile, the costs of the damages at the minister’s establishments that include the Pigg’s Peak branch are estimated to be over E105 million. The latest damage in Bhunya is yet to be quantified.