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MARTIN’S BUDGET DEFIES KING ON NEW STADIUM

17/03/2018 00:23:00 BY SABELO GWEBU

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MBABANE – It will seem the country will wait a little longer to have a stadium of international standards.

Minister of Finance Martin Dlamini’s budget excluded the proposed construction of the national stadium, effectively defying His Majesty King Mswati III’s call in his Speech from the Throne when he officially opened Parliament early this month.

The King said the country was determined to provide the best infrastructure to enhance economic growth and development. The monarch mentioned that in the 2017/18 financial year, a total of E5.6 billion was invested in projects. About E2.9 billion was provided by government while the balance was secured through external loans and grants.

“In the coming year, government will continue with some of its infrastructure development projects. These include, but not limited to; the new Parliament building, the national stadium, the referral hospital and completion of pending road projects,” His Majesty said.

The King, who will be turning 50 years old on April 19, also implored companies that have been given government tenders to work efficiently and effectively towards completing them on time, in order to avoid cost escalations.
Swaziland has the smallest stadium in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as modest Somhlolo National Stadium only has 7 500 seats.

Government arrears are projected to reach E3 billion by the end of the 2017/18 financial year at the end of the month. In an effort to clear the arrears, government introduced two new instruments that were offered to the market in 2016/17 and 2017/18; the infrastructure bond and the supplier’s bond. From these instruments, government was able to raise E830 million, which was utilised to pay some suppliers. However, this amount was not sufficient to clear the stock of arrears. Minister Dlamini was unavailable when called to shed light on government’s take on the matter for the better of yesterday.