By EPN Reporter
MBABANE – Government has made a commitment to fight corruption, as per the directive of Emaswati, who made it clear during Sibaya that corruption must brought to the end.
Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini stated that this was one of the resolutions taken during the recently concluded Cabinet Work Retreat, which took place at Royal Villas in Ezulwini. Dlamini stated that actually, government had already started working on fighting corruption.
The premier highlighted that the economy of the country could not grow when corruption was rife. He stated that a huge amount of money was lost because of corruption, so they were working on strategies to be used to eradicate this unfortunate situation.
Corruption has been deemed responsible for the loss of about E80 million per month from the public coffers. The scourge has also been deemed as a catalyst behind the unavailability of drugs and other necessary materials in the country’s public health facilities.
This state of affairs has resulted in Emaswati mincing no words in stating, during Sibaya, that corruption should be eradicated once and for all. They blamed corruption for the high rate of unemployment and the lack of service delivery from government, among other issues.
Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg also admitted during Sibaya that there were ‘rats’ that were determined to ensure they wiped the public coffers dry. He called for ways to be speedily devised to deal with such ‘rats’ and put them in jail, where they belonged. Minister Rijkenberg pointed out that each year, government spent about E700 million buying drugs to be made available in all the health facilties for Emaswati to be healthy. However, it was not clear where the drugs went, and what was unfortunate, according to the minister, was that the name of His Majesty King Mswati III was tainted in the process.
During the discussions on corruption, Mbabane East Member of Parliament (MP) Welcome Dlamini suggested that Chief Justice (CJ) Bheki Maphalala should undo a precedent judgment that was issued by CJ Maphalala in 2015, which, according to the legislator, killed the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), an organisation set by government to fight corruption in the country.
MP Dlamini referred to the case of former Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Gideon Dlamini against the ACC. He said if that judgment could be undone, the ACC could be a powerful organisation that could effectively deal with corruption. He also called upon the prime minister to be brave to confront people who would be seen to be corrupt, and also be able to report them to His Majesty the King.
