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SOME MPS CONCERNED ON RDF AVAILABILITY

13/12/2021 08:48:00 BY STANLEY KHUMALO

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MANZINI – Some legislators under the Manzini Region have raised concerns that the Minister of Tinkhundla Administration and Development, David ‘Cruiser’ Ngcamphalala, is allegedly throwing them under the bus and setting them up against the electorate.

The Members of Parliament (MPs) claimed that the pronouncement by Ngcamphalala and the Regional Development Fund (RDF) Director, Cornelius Dlamini, wherein they propagated the availability of funding for the citizenry through the RDF, were a far-fetched dream. In the recent trips, the ministry sought to educate residents about the financial support that could be exploited through RDF and Dlamini constantly referred to the fund as ibhamama (freebie).

The ministry had, by December 2, 2021, visited 23 royal residences to educate the citizenry about the fund. In their pursuit of inculcating the knowledge about the fund, Dlamini would at instances use the unemployment statistics of South Africa in an effort to elaborate that the challenge was not unique to the kingdom; but the RDF, if pursued by the public, could contribute to the decline of the statistics in the country.

Unemployment

Unemployment rate in the country is relatively high and the most affected is the youth as they are at 58.2 per cent while the overall unemployment rate in the kingdom is 33.3 per cent of a population of about 1.2 million. This is an acute increase from 23.4 per cent recorded in 2016. In the gatherings, Dlamini said about E452 million had been disbursed towards development through RDF since its inception. He said this had brought a concern among the administration as most of the funding was addressing infrastructural development in schools such that 42 per cent had been invested in schools. “It is these statistics that have forced us to promote entrepreneurship through RDF so that job opportunities could be availed,” he said. In light of this, during a meeting held by legislators with the Manzini Regional Secretary– Arnold Dlamini – they raised concerns about the information dispersed by the ministry.

Constituencies

Worth noting is that there are 18 constituencies in the Manzini Region. These are: Mkhiweni, Kukhanyeni, Mafutseni, Ludzeludze, Manzini North, Manzini South, Kwaluseni, Mthongwaneni and Lobamba Lomdzala. Also, under the Manzini Region are: Nhlambeni, Ntondozi, Mahlangatsha, Ngwempisi, Mangcongco, Mhlambanyatsi, LaMgabhi and Nkomiyahlaba. Each constituency is awarded a budget of E3 million annually to undertake projects by the communities. The initial stage is for members to form a group of not less than 10 members and then submit their business proposal to the chiefdom councillor – bucopho.

Thereafter, the initiative they seek to pursue is reviewed with the assistance of officers from the ministry to ensure that it is a viable idea. Once the idea is set, the members should raise 10 per cent of the capital they seek from RDF. The 10 per cent could either be stock, land or human resource to be used, for instance, during construction. Thereafter, the idea is submitted to the constituency centre where the councillors review and submit it and then legislators meet to decide on them before they are submitted to the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development.

Given the process involved, the legislators were of the view that Ngcamphalala and the Director of RDF, Dlamini, were setting them up with the constituents as the processes involved had resulted in a backlog of requests within the constituencies. They were of the view that there were requests for financial funding that were yet to be funded yet they had undergone all the stages and were awaiting approval by the ministry. Some of these were submitted over three months ago. In the meeting held last Thursday, the legislators are said to have expressed that the funding propagated by the ministry was not available, given that the requests seeking approval would exhaust the funds for some constituencies.

Manzini South Constituency MP Macford Sibandze said in his constituency, there were projects that were pending since 2018. He said to date; they were yet to be implemented. “In so many meetings, I have reported to the community and now, I don’t report about them because they no longer trust us,” Sibandze said.

Projects

Last week, he said there were four projects that were approved and his wish was that they could be implemented in record time so that they were able to maintain their credibility in the community. Sibandze said: “They (Ministry of Tinkhundla) should tell the people the truth and make them understand the logistical nightmare that the ministry is dealing with and the difficulty of assessing the funds.” He said the ministry must not make it look easy because the community would blame them as a constituency council. The legislator said some of the constituents were of the view that they were sabotaging projects that were passed by their predecessors.

Also, Nkomiyahlaba Constituency MP Welcome Shongwe said there was a challenge with what the ministry was relaying to the public as it was setting them up against the electorate. He said their concerns were not borne of a will to retain their political seats, but the challenges that would arise from an aggrieved public who were bound to be frustrated by the lack of funding. Shongwe said what the ministry was saying was practically not possible. He was referring to the three-month period to access the funding by constituents. He said after an application was filed, the ministry needed to assess it and the challenge was that there was a limitation of transport to be used by officers engaging in this activity.

“Three months is just too little and misleading the public,” he said. Shongwe said in his constituency there was a backlog of requests as only four were approved from a list of eight. He said the quartet that was endorsed had a budget of E2.6 million in total, which meant that the remainder would fall into the next financial year.

Requests

Shongwe also said the impression that requests were approved in three months could lead to people flooding them with requests seeking to venture into cash-generating projects, given the unemployment rates. “Where will the funding come from if we are failing to meet the budget for projects that are already assessed and seek to be implemented?” He was of the view that the ministry was setting them up against the public as they were aware of the logistics and the fact that the E2.8 million awarded to each constituency was not sufficient.

On the other hand, Kukhanyeni Constituency MP Malavi Sihlongonyane said there were administrative issues that needed to be addressed within the RDF. He said these included the turnaround time for the projects as some businesses were time bound. Sihlongonyane said it was imperative for government to act more or less like banks which stated when money would be made available. “We need to give the public a turnaround time on when their requests will be dealt with and it needs to be practical,” Sihlongonyane said.

Time-frame

He emphasised that at the moment, the turnaround time for dealing with requests could not be three months as legislators met within that time-frame to deal with requests. Also, the RDF Portfolio Committee Chairperson, Michael Masuku, confirmed the meeting. He said they had requested the Regional Secretary to address the issue with the Tinkhundla Ministry as it set to undermine their efforts.

Masuku said the legislators were of the view that the constituents would flood the constituency centres with requests and when not attaining funding within the three months announced by the ministry, start casting doubt on their (legislators) capabilities in executing their (electorate) interests. “In the three months that is announced by the minister to complete the processes, it is hard to achieve the funding. For example, in my constituency, there is a request for a hardware store, which its expenditure is set at over E2.1 million. This is not the only project; so, where will the funding for the others come from if the money is available in three months yet the budget for a constituency is E3 million?” Masuku said in entirety, each constituency ended up with about E2.8 million as the E200 000 ended up being used for administrative duties.