Times Of Swaziland: NO CABINET APPROVAL YET FOR MPS’ SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE

NO CABINET APPROVAL YET FOR MPS’ SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY INITIATIVE
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Ntombi Mhlongo on 17/09/2023 16:30:00


MBABANE – Has the so-called Tinkhundla` Social Accountability Initiative for
elected politicians been prematurely revealed to the public?
Despite being welcomed with excitement, the programme might not start bearing
fruits anytime soon as it has been gathered that it has not yet received the
much needed certificate of approval from Cabinet. Also, the Office of the
Attorney General (AG), which is responsible for the drafting and signing of
legislations in the country, has not been given an opportunity to see the
concept. The Social Accountability Initiative (SAI) is a system that is centred
around the initial promises made by elected candidates during the campaign
period leading to the elections. As a result, the initiative engages a process
of consolidating two sets of aspirations into one, which eventually becomes the
official mandate of the politicians for the people of each of the constituencies
(tinkhundla).
meeting
It was first made public by the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and
Development to the Shiselweni Region during a meeting with chiefs last Monday.
On Thursday, a similar meeting was held, where the ministry presented the
programme to Lubombo Region chiefs. The AG, Sifiso Mashampu Khumalo, when called
by this publication first asked this reporter what programme she was referring
to as he had only read about it in the newspaper. “I was surprised as to where
you got this from. Before I can assist, perhaps you should tell me where the
media got this from. Where is the source?” he asked. It is worth nothing that
our sister publication got this information while on the ground when it was
mentioned by Director of Decentralisation in the Ministry of Tinkhundla
Administration and Development, Dumisani Sithole.
“When it comes to such, the first point is the policy stage, which is followed
by consultations within the ministry before presenting to Cabinet. The AG’s
role is to give the green light that this now is okay. For now, I do not think
it has reached that stage,” he said. Interestingly, Sithole rubbished the idea
of taking the programme to Cabinet. He boldly told this publication that there
was no need to take the programme to Cabinet as it was not a legislation. “We
decided that we will not present it because Cabinet is a bit busy these days.
Also, this programme is part of our mandate. We have, as ministry, a
responsibility to improve the coordination, accountability and transparency in
the use of public resources. Secondly, in terms of the Constitution, we are just
implementing something that is provided for,” he said.
Sithole reiterated that this programme did not fall under the category of
legislations and said there was no need to secure a Cabinet certificate of
approval.  “With this one there was just no need. We were instructed by
Parliament to go and develop this. We are mandated to do this. It has been up to
us to decide as to which level we pitch it. Otherwise, nothing will stop us from
rolling it out,” he said. This reporter brought it to the attention of Sithole
what the AG had said and he stated that it was not all programmes that needed to
go via the Office of the AG.
possession
Ironically, this publication is in the possession of a copy of a Cabinet paper
which the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development had prepared to
present to Cabinet on the aforementioned programme. Under the theme ‘Creating
a Vibrant Tinkhundla Platform for Responsive, Transparent and Accountable Local
Governance’, it is stated in the Cabinet presentation that the need for the
concept arose from calls from key stakeholders and citizens, who noted that
there was a need for a platform for political engagement between and their local
politicians. Another reason stated in the document is that politicians do not
have a reporting back arrangement to the electorate once elected and that there
are no frameworks and systems for public participation in local governance.
Furthermore, the document mentions that politicians usually carry an
uncoordinated political mandate from the people.
“By now, everybody should know that there is accountability for all public
resources. Generally, accountability can be defined as the obligation of power
holders to account for or take responsibility for their actions. Social
responsibility serves that purpose by holding duty bearers responsible for their
actions or inaction,” reads part of the paper prepared for presentation in
Cabinet.It also highlights that public office bearers (politicians and civil
servants) are trustees and should be accountable to the people. Also included in
the paper is the application of the initiative where it is stated that social
responsibility is not for one group but applies to all stakeholders, these being
State and non-State where public service applies. “In our case, it will apply
to elected Members of Parliament (MPs), bucopho and tindvuna tetinkhundla. This
will in turn translate to the rest of public officers in charge of serve
delivery of public services It will then apply to the rest of other stakeholders
delivering a service among people,” it is stated in the document.
The Times SUNDAY gathered that the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration started
by presenting the concept to relevant stakeholders including the Elections and
Boundaries Commission (EBC) and government ministries. The aim of presenting it
to the various stakeholders was to fast-track the process of compiling a Cabinet
paper as per the dictates of government procedures. It was gathered that when
the time came for the responsible team to craft the Cabinet paper, it turned out
that they had already engaged several stakeholders.
Part of the engagements included equipping graduates from tertiary institutions
with skills on how to roll out the concept. The idea was that the graduates were
the ones who would go out to the chiefdoms to conduct civic education on the
concept. “A challenge arose when one of the ministries raised a concern that
the responsible team had gone as far as engaging graduates without having gone
to Cabinet to secure the approval,” a source said. The team is said to have
found itself in a dilemma as another issue was raised that it would not be
possible to present the concept to Cabinet when no funding on how it would be
rolled out had been secured. The team was then advised to mobilise the resources
first after which the concept would be presented to Cabinet. Another dilemma
came to the fore as the team had planned to host what is known as a donor
conference.
conference
It was argued that such a conference could not be held without the Cabinet
approval. The team was then stuck with the Cabinet paper that had been drafted
up until they decided to start rolling out the concept by engaging the chiefs.
Meanwhile, as part of ensuring that the SAI achieves its goals, it was planned
that the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration would facilitate the provision of
forms, which the elected candidates would be expected to fill when they
participate in the organised campaigns organised by the EBC. The organised
campaigns are a platform where the candidates market themselves and state in
detail what they promise the electorate in the event that they win the
elections. “It is supposed to work in such a way that when the candidate
presents his or her manifesto, they have to be recorded. Once the elections are
over, the winners to reconfirm the promises they made to the electorate and that
has to be recorded. The Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration then has to make
follow-ups on those promises,” said a source who was part of the engagements
on the initiative. The source acknowledged that the process of rolling out the
system has delayed as it was supposed to have been done before the start of the
elections. “The plan was that by the time the elections start, all the
relevant stakeholders would have been trained. These include the facilitators.
By now they should have been trained so that they can properly educate the
electorate in the communities,” the source said.