‘WE DON’T WANT TO BE PARTY TO CORRUPTION’

LOBAMBA – Corruption and conniving is seen as the only ticket to secure a seat in Parliament and pastors find it a big challenge.

As men of God, they feel they cannot be party to corruption just to win a seat in the august House. Speaking about past experiences during elections, the men of the cloth said too much bribery takes place to win the electorate over. They felt that the way the elections were handled in the past was dominated by dishonesty, which involved paying bribes.

“In order to win elections, you have to bribe people who will vote in your favour, something we are totally against,” said the clergymen.
These were some of the submission made by the priests and members of the Swaziland League of Churches during the voter education exercise conducted by the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) that took place at the National Church at Nkhanini on Friday.

The church leaders strongly felt that they were not competitive enough as their financial muscle was weak.
They said in order to win the elections, one needed to be loaded and have a lot of money to splash out to the electorate and also pay the campaign team (bogalajane).

Further, they commended EBC for starting the voter education in the church and encouraging them to participate. “The church is a pillar of this country and the people elected should be God-fearing,” they said.

Bishop Simon Tsabedze expressed their desire to participate in the elections as church leaders but said it was just impossible without money. Tsabedze urged the EBC team to consider reviewing the way the elections were conducted and controlled by the big shots who flagged money.
Some of the clergymen felt that parliamentarians made a lot of promises when campaigning and now that they were legislators, they were failing to deliver. They sought direction from the EBC on how to recall those parliamentarians who did not deliver at constituency level.

They also felt strongly about those candidates who were elected then appointed ministers. “There should be an arrangement that once an elected candidate is appointed minister then another should be chosen to replace them at constituency level,” they said. President of the Swaziland League of Churches Bishop Samson Hlatjwako commended EBC for supporting the church and encouraging them to participate.

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