… As Emaswati celebrate his submissions on the issue at Sibaya Day 5
BY KWANELE TSABEDZE
LUDZIDZINI – “Corruption continues to be a challenge in the country, and numerous efforts have been made to curb it without success. What do we need to do to curb it?”
This was the question which Mbabane East Member of Parliament, Welcome Dlamini, responded to at the Sibaya panel discussions today – to ululations and applause from Emaswati who were listening to him at the Ludzidzini Royal Kraal.
“Your Majesty, the first thing is that the incoming Prime Minister should call together the Chief Justice, the Minister of Justice, as well as the Attorney General for a meeting. They should then come back and explain to us how the Chief Justice can undo the precedent judgment he made in 2015 which destroyed the Anti-Corruption Commission’s ability to function,” said Dlamini when he started off his discussion.
He clarified that he was referring to the 2015 case of Gideon Dlamini who was the then Minister of Commerce.
“The Chief Justice issued an obiter dictum, which is essentially his opinions which, however, have the power to stall legal proceedings. The Prime Minister should work with the Chief Justice to remove the obiter dictum. It is only then when we can meaningfully begin to fight against corruption,” said the Mbabane East MP.
Dlamini also emphasised that there should be lifestyle audits for Government workers who are seen to be living way above their publicly known means. He suggested that these lifestyle audits should be comprehensive, to make sure that corrupt officials are not able to spend their proceeds from corruption without any accountability.
“Your Majesty, we will request that the Prime Minister you appoint should be brave. He should be able to come to you and report if any of your subordinates is perpetrating corruption. In Siswati, we say that “umuntfu uyacelwwa enkhosini” and the King always provides for his people what they need. We therefore request, Your Majesty, that the Prime Minister should be brave enough to confront corrupt individuals who have a close relationship with you,” passionately advised Dlamini, much to the crowd’s affirming chants.
Dlamini then went on to advise on how the health crises can be addressed, as it involves corruption.
“The Minister of Finance explained yesterday that E700 million worth of drugs are paid for each year. Where do all the drugs go? This problem ultimately diminishes His Majesty’s name. We need to show that we are serious about fighting corruption in this case as if we have never fought it before. People should go to jail for this, as there has been a lot of malpractice which have resulted in people’s deaths,” added Dlamini with passion.
“The public now has to buy drugs from expensive pharmacies, which you discover upon closer investigation that they are owned by people who are part of the official drug supply chain,” noted Dlamini with sadness.
Dlamini strongly emphasised that the low-level operators in the malpractice concerning drugs should be turned into state witnesses, so that the main culprits can be brought to justice, instead of the low-level operators like drivers.
He went on to advise that the Master of the High Court should be investigated, as there have been many reports of corruption in that department and no one has been held accountable for the financial losses in that department.
“Lastly, I would like to speak on the Financial Services sector. We should focus on FSRA, as there have been many financial losses of the public’s funds. There are complaints about LIkhwane where millions of Emaswati’s money has disappeared, The same goes for Ecsponent, where Emaswati lost millions,” offered Dlamini.
He noted that there is clearly some corruption at the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA).
“We know that money has a paper trail, it does not just disappear. However, here we have a case of money leaving the Kingdom of Eswatini’s systems without a paper trail to the tune of E300 million and no one is accountable. No, we should not play with Emaswati, this is their money,” concluded Dlamini, much to resounding applause and ululations of support from the people gathered at Ludzidzini.
