ECSPONENT INVESTORS COMMITTEE ELECTED

MBABANE – A huge milestone has been reached following the election of an 11-member committee to represent the over 1 500 emaSwati whose E340 million investments were allegedly misappropriated by Ecsponent Eswatini Limited’s management.

The Investor Relations Committee (IRC) was elected from the 21 members, who were nominated during the investors’ first-ever general meeting held at Esibayeni Lodge in Matsapha mid-June 2022. The 21-member group converged at the ESW Investment Group (ESWIG) offices in Mbabane about a week ago to elect among themselves the IRC, whose main task will be to work hand in hand with ESWIG’s newly-appointed management in raising funds to repay the distressed investors. The election process ensured that all the country’s four regions were represented to make communication easy and effective.

Another fundamental criterion was fair gender balance, hence the election of five females and six males. An additional condition that was considered was each member’s skills that would add value as they undertake the mammoth task for creating revenue-generating initiatives that would guarantee compensation of the investors within the shortest time possible. Interestingly, some in the 21-member group volunteered not to be elected after it was indicated that the IRC members should make adequate time to attend meetings and other related assignments.  

Chairperson

The IRC’s Chairperson is Norman Dlamini while Sincobile Lukhele is the Vice Chairperson. The rest of the members include Billie Dlamini, Dr Njabu Dlamini, Michele Lloyd, Yolanda Oswin and Mlimi Mamba. The others are Sydney Kunene, Sandile Mbhamali, Khulile Nyambo and Douglas Dlamini. The committee will in the initial stages meet, at least, twice a month. It is envisaged that the frequency will slightly decrease from next year onwards. The committee held its first official meeting on Friday, which was described by the chairperson as very productive. “We pray that God helps us as we undertake this difficult task. Considering the quality of the committee members, I’m confident that we won’t fail the investors,” said the chairperson.

Dlamini stated that they would keep the rest of the investors fully informed of all developments. He said they would have open lines of communication to allow the investors to share constructive ideas with the committee. He further stated that; “It’s very important for all emaSwati who invested their monies with Ecsponent to know that we’re hard at work, trying all we can, in partnership with management, to ensure that a lasting solution is found to this debacle. Having had our first meeting, we’re quite impressed and encouraged by the prospects.”
Dlamini expressed gratitude to ESWIG’s shareholders and management for the brilliant idea of setting up the committee.

Benefit

“We feel empowered to make meaningful contribution for the benefit of all the citizens who lost their hard-earned savings. I see no reason why this should not work out to our satisfaction.” ESWIG’s CEO Max Mkhonza indicated that the IRC and management had their first meeting on July 1,  2022 to define their working relationship and agree on priority actions for the short-term. “When we met all the affected investors on June 17 and 18, 2022, we undertook to work with them through the committee to accelerate the process of implementing the turnaround strategy. The July 1, 2022 meeting, therefore, allowed us to thoroughly engage them on the deliverables of the turnaround strategy for complete alignment,” Mkhonza said.

He added; “In addition, the meeting thoroughly ventilated the need to establish a new special purpose vehicle (SPV) and the shareholding of this company as it is key to the operationalisation of the turnaround strategy. This vehicle has been established for the sole purpose of developing new income streams from which the investors will begin to re-coup their losses as committed by the company.” Mkhonza further indicated that management and the investors committee would be meeting a variety of critical stakeholders in the next coming weeks to jointly present the turnaround strategy and to lobby for support. The critical stakeholders will be Members of Parliament and the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini. He also indicated that a comprehensive communique to all the investors would be sent by the committee by July 21, 2022.

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