Company suspends five for eating PM's grapes

MBABANE – Five employees of a company clearing Chromolae-lana odorata popularly known as sandanezwe were last Thursday suspended by their employer.

This was after they allegedly ate grapes from the Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini’s orchard at Kukhanyeni where they had gone to clear his yard of the invasive plant.
Sources within Sisebantfu Investments (PTY) Ltd told Swazi News on Tuesday this week that last Monday their boss got a call from an officer from the Ministry of Environmental Affairs who wanted to know why his employees ate the PM’s grapes from his orchard.

“My boss first thought that an officer from the ministry was pulling a joke when he called to ask who ate the PM’s grapes and he never thought it was a serious issue. Seeing that he was uncompromising my boss then apolo-gised and promised to compensate the PM. Our boss went to the PM’s office, with our supervisor accompanied by the Manzini station commander to apologise. It transpired that the PM was not pleased with the people who ate his grapes,” said a source.

When sought for comment on the matter the Managing Director of Sisebantfu Investments Ndumiso Tsabedze said it was true that his company was sent to go and destroy Sandanezwe at the PM’s place. He does not know who sent the company there because he was not the one who mandated the team to go.

“I would have loved to comment on the issue but just because it is now with the police it will be improper of me to make comments. Other than that I know that our team was sent there but I was not the one who assigned them to go there. On your question on who will pay us? the Ministry of Environmental Affairs knows about our going there so they will be paying us for the work,” said Tsabedze.
Tsabedze also confirmed that his employees ate the PM’s grapes. He said his company bought four boxes of grapes to compensate the PM.

“On the issue of grapes, it is true that we bought four boxes in a bid to show our remorse and I do not know what finally happened to them,” said Tsabedze.  
Tsabedze said his company was very sorry for what happened to the PM’s grapes and they would like to unreservedly apologise for the improper conduct by their employees. He said it was for the first time for such a thing to happen to his employees.
“We had to place people on hold as a result of the PM’s grapes. You can term it suspension but to us it was an attempt of getting the truth on who might have eaten the grapes. Even now we have not established that but I will get to the bottom of it,” said Tsabedze.  

 
 Meanwhile, Solomon Gamedze,  Director of Forests in the Ministry of Environmental Affairs, said the issue was out of bounds for it to be discussed in the media.

“That issue you’re talking about was long resolved. That issue is very hot and I do not know if you will be able to face the heat from the fire you’re starting. If you were me you were not going to publish that story because it has the potential of burning you,” said Gamedze briefly before hanging up.
An email was sent to the office of the PM on Thursday morning with an attempt to get the PM’s comment. Government Press Secretary Macanjana Motsa said the PM had been out of office for the past two days so they have not had time to check on their mail. She promised to attend to it immediately the PM returns to Mbabane next week.

“The PM is currently touring hospitals in the Shiselweni region and we have not been able to access our emails so we can only be able to respond next week,” said Motsa.
Swazi News learnt from sources close to the matter that Manzini police were investigating the matter.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: