Times Of Swaziland: ‘MERGE FOUR PARASTATALS INTO ONE ENTITY’

‘MERGE FOUR PARASTATALS INTO ONE ENTITY’
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BY THOKOZANI MAMBA on 22/04/2021 07:54:00


SIMUNYE – The Ministry of Finance has proposed to the Senate House for the
passing of the merging process of four parastatals under the Ministry of Sports,
Culture and Youth Affairs into one entity.
The ministry’s Principal Secretary (PS) Sizakele Dlamini announced the latest
developments that her ministry has embarked on in a bid to cut government’s
costs. Dlamini made this revelation yesterday at the Simunye Country Club during
the commencement of the three-day senate retreat event. Close to 20 senators
attended this event. Those who were present were Senate President Pastor Lindiwe
Dlamini, her deputy Ndumiso Mdluli, Moi Moi Masilela, Prince Mphatfwa, Tony
Sibandze and Isaac Magagula. Other senators were Prince Magudvulela, Alberto
Samuels, Mkhululi Dlamini and Sylvia Mthethwa to mention only a few.
The PS was unpacking her ministry’s proposed programmes aimed at cutting costs
while embracing the speech from the Throne that was delivered by His Majesty
King Mswati III during the official opening of Parliament early this year. The
affected parastatals are Sports and Recreation Council, Eswatini National Arts
and Culture, Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund (YERF) and Eswatini National Youth
Council (ENYC). “As a ministry, we have embarked in a process of nationalising
public entities and it is still under drafting process. It is a proposal we are
announcing today and it is still yet to be approved by all stakeholders hence
parliament is the major stakeholder. There are parastatals that are within some
ministries that have to be merged and we have proposed that for instance, in
sports, we have the sports and recreation and the youth fund and others which we
believe they can be merged into one entity. Their operations should be under one
public enterprise to cut costs as well as their wage bill,” she said.
She said the merging of some entities that were not financially bringing in
income to the government purse was aimed at ensuring that government cut costs
in salaries as well as human resource. The PS said this change was part of the
post-COVID-19 economic recovery programme aimed at assisting government to
circumvent and mitigate unwarranted costs. “There is a need to pool them
together so that we cut costs. There are entities that got government’s
subvention but we have observed that 80 per cent of that amount goes to salaries
yet that money was allocated for the capacitating and assisting in nation
building. For instance, MVA, there is a levy being exhausted by this entity and
it is imperative that its operations and wage bill is sourced from the very
money that is levied to its coffers,” she said. Meanwhile, the Sports and
Recreation Council is allocated in the region of E7 million annually by
government.