NDMA DISBURSES OVER E15M TO THE NEEDY IN 5 DAYS

NKWENE – Over E15 million has been distributed to most deserving emaSwati through the NDMA cash-based transfer relief fund in the past five days.
NDMA is an acronym for National Disaster Management Agency.

According to NDMA Programmes Director Victor Mahlalela, the second phase of payments was running smoothly, adding that there were fewer challenges this time around when compared to the first phase distribution exercise.

Mahlalela said before they began issuing payments, they instructed the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) they were working with to visit constituencies and validate the information of beneficiaries, which greatly assisted them. He stated that the funds were paid through the E45 million donation made by the Kirsh Foundation and a balance of E30 million remained.

Hope

Mahlalela expressed hope that they would have exhausted the distribution of the funds in the second phase by Friday. Constituencies which received the money yesterday included Nkwene and Ludzeludze, among others.

To date, Mahlalela said 13 659 households, under 14 constituences, have benefited from the fund. The constituencies include; Hhukwini, LaMgabhi, Lomahasha, Ludzeludze, Madlangampisi, Mangcongco, Maphalaleni, Mhlume, Ngudzeni, Nhlambeni, Nkilongo, Nkomiyahlaba, Nkwene, Shiselweni I and Zombodze Emuva.

He said last Monday, they were able to pay a total of six constituencies and almost half of the country’s constituencies had been covered.
Mahlalela said they hoped that by the end of this week, they would have covered almost all the constituencies they were targeting to reach through the cash-based transfer programme.

He noted that they had completed payments for Phase-One and had started were paying out under Phase Two. Mahlalela acknowledged that they were dealing with challenges of few individuals who still had not received the first payment but had almost covered 57 000 households under Phase One.
He further explained that they were able to overcome most of the challenges when issuing the second phase payments. “There were very few instances where an individual was not paid and mostly due to information that did not correspond,” explained Mahlalela.

Representative of the Kirsh Foundation in the kingdom, George Lys, said having contributed so much money for food relief in the country, which was close to E90 million, they wanted to find out if it benefitted the people, especially those who were severely impoverished and had no other means of survival.

Ascertain

Lys said they decided to join NDMA, a partner they were working with, to ascertain what was happening on the ground. “We also wanted to hear from the authorities at the constituencies and further meet the people to understand how they were using the cash,” Lys said. He stated that they would be reporting back to the Kirsh family on the findings, whether the funds were being properly spent. This, he said, would give the family confidence to release more funds in the event that Eswatini would require more funding to assist in food relief issues. “It has been a privilege for me to come and witness what is happening on the ground,” he said during the distribution exercise.

Lys said he was impressed with what he had seen and the stories he heard from the beneficiaries themselves on how they spent the money. Summing it up, Lys said it was a job well done by NDMA and the NGOs they were collaborating with. He said they noted that some households were falling off the net but they could not reach out to all of them as there were not enough funds. Also, he noted that they were spending about E5 million assisting random people who sought their assistance. He said some of these people included church groups.

Lys cleared the air on the issue of the funds, which he said were sourced from Kirsh’s businesses outside the country. He stated that there was information that the funds were sourced from Kirsh’s local businesses, which he said was not true. Lys said the funds which were generated in the country were directed to projects that uplifted the lives of emaSwati, including Inhlanyelo Fund and also installing high speed internet in schools, among others. 

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: