‘MADZE’ GRILLED ON E3M FOR YOUTH

MBABANE – What should have been good news was badly received by Members of Parliament (MPs) on Monday.

This was the announcement by the Minister of Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs Harries ‘Madze’ Bulunga; that some of the youth of the country would some time this week be presented with about E3 million from the Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund (YERF).

The total allocation to the Youth Empowerment Fund was E12 million.
During his preamble, Bulunga had announced that there had initially been 270 applicants of the country’s youth who had forwarded business proposals.
However, as soon as the minister took his seat, the MPs fell on him like a ton of bricks.

This was during the budget debate of the ministry’s end-of-year report by the House of Assembly portfolio committee, which is chaired by Siphofaneni MP Mduduzi Simelane.  
First to ask the minister was Hosea MP Mduduzi Mabuza, who wanted to know what criteria they had used to select the individuals who would be awarded a quarter of the money from the fund.

The minister said an organisation called IDCE would manage both the disbursements and collections on behalf of the fund although he did not get into details of what the institution was about IDCE is an acronym for the Industrial Development Company of Eswatini.

Mabuza wanted to know what skills the potential entrepreneurs possessed.
Next was Timphisini MP Nelson Mamba who also asked how the money had been disbursed because no one had come to his constituency to inform the youth about the fund.

Laughable

Mhlangatane MP Madala Mhlanga, on the other hand, said the E12 million allocated to the youth was laughable.
He said the figure was very disappointing and would not be enough to assist the youth of the country, which was a majority of the country’s population.
Mhlume MP Victor Malambe, asked the minister why the fund did not operate like the Regional Development Fund (RDF) where it would be addressed at Inkhundla level.

“Further, who represents the youth during these meetings and how were those who will benefit selected?” asked Malambe.  He wondered if the beneficiaries were from all over the country as he suspected that they could be from one area.

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