BY MBONGENI NDLELA
EZULWINI – Thousands of Emaswati have been given a relief from walking long distances to get around rivers. The Ministry of Economic Planning and Development (MEPD), under Microprojects, partnered with Engineers in Action (EIA) from the USA to construct footbridges in different parts of the country. The programme is called the Eswatini Bridge Programme (Tebetebe).
Speaking during the event, EIA Eswatini Bridge Project Manager, Brittany “Sibongile” Margritz expressed gratitude at the cooperation from different stakeholders during the process of building bridges in the country. “My heart is filled with joy about today. My Siswati name is Sibongile, and this thing is very true because my heart is full of gratitude for this programme -especially to the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development and to the Microprojects programme, Engineers in Action is very full of gratitude for this programme.”
“Engineers In Action has been here since 2017, and we’ve really gotten to see this programme grow little by little. When we started, there was just bridge being built each year and it took 12 weeks that first project, and it was a struggle. But we’ve grown ever since then, and now we’re building 5 bridges annually and we’ve nearly doubled our annual impact. It’s really through the partnership with the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development that this has been possible,” added Margritz.
The Principal Secretary from the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development Thabsile Mlangeni also thanked the Eswatini Bridge Programme stakeholders. “I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the PS from the Ministry of Economic Planning for the support in this event. We really appreciate your support. You’ve always made sure that we have the funding, with whatever constraints you have.”
“We appreciate the support we have received in pushing our economic development agenda. In particular not just improving GDP figures, we are now drilling down to what people benefitting from whatever we are doing. That is why I very much appreciate the support that we are getting in the construction of footbridges,” she added.
The 11 fully constructed footbridges benefit over 19,000 Emaswati. The programme continued to run throughout the COVID-19 pandemic by entrusting more technical responsibilities to the Eswatini engineers who are with Microprojects. There are currently two ongoing projects – one in Mahlangatja which is attended to by the exchange students from Colorado Boulder and Penn State Universities, and another in Ludzeludze which is attended by exchange students from Cornell and Rutgers.
