Times Of Swaziland: MILITARY INTERVENTION BAD FOR INVESTMENT

MILITARY INTERVENTION BAD FOR INVESTMENT
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The Editor on 16/03/2021 08:18:00


It would be putting it mildly that there is now a growing apprehension among
citizens who are trying to comprehend what seems to be an emerging trend of
military intervention in matters that would normally fall within the parameters
of pure business transactions. Not long ago, army personnel were deployed to
interrupt a public auction; an act which was later described as triggered by
miscommunication. Now we see members of the army placed at the centre of a
controversial Sicunusa quarry mine business deal, which the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Energy says was necessitated by an alleged plundering of national
resources. This is not the picture we want to see of our local business
environment that is desperate for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), particularly
when justice can be sought through existing civil avenues which are capable of
resolving conflict and addressing business transgressions. In the case of one
Mandla Mkhaliphi, a farm owner at Sicunusa and director of NDI Investments, the
ministry alleges he broke the law by carrying out mining activities without the
prerequisite licence which he failed to renew within the stipulated timelines. 
What the ministry is not addressing in its statement though, are the counter
reports of a non-transparent application that has been made by other parties
with great interest in the mine and how it intends to deal with this
application.
involvement
Clouding this development is the alleged involvement of a member of the Umbutfo
Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF), who is also from the royal family, in this
business matter. If the ministry claims to be protecting State resources, it
goes without saying that it also has a fiduciary duty to protect the law of the
land by carrying out a transparent process of either affording NDI Investments
an opportunity to appeal the non-renewal of its licence (if indeed the law has
been violated), or seek a new operator by putting the licence out to public
tender. To handpick an operator for the mine would be to reinforce the
perception that doing business in this country was becoming more dangerous than
risky. We do not and will never condone the breaking of the law by any citizen
or business entity; neither should the ministry. Therefore, let the natural
course of justice prevail without military intervention to avert an undesirable
precedent which, in the eyes of the ordinary citizen, comes across as
intimidation.