SIKHANYISO REFUND: GOVT GIVEN 7-DAY ULTIMATUM

MANZINI – Government has up until Friday to act on the demand of having the Minister of ICT, Princess Sikhanyiso, repay money she earned while on a protracted leave.

This follows that the Swaziland People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) President, Vusi Shongwe, wrote to government giving it an ultimatum of seven working days. In this period, Shongwe demanded that the administration should address the matter involving the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) minister.

Demand

“We delivered the letters of demand to the office of the government spokesperson last Thursday and we expect feedback from the administration by Friday,” the leader of the political party said. He said within the seven days, they expected to get a clearly mapped out repayment process articulated by the Attorney General’s (AGs) Office and the Ministry of Finance on how the minister would repay the said money to government’s coffers. Shongwe added that they also wanted government to state how the money would be donated to health facilities across the country in order to improve the health of the nation who were taxpayers. “Failure to do so will result in us employing other strategies to ensure that the minister pays back the money,” the president said.

In the letters, which the organisation directed to the offices of the AG, Minister of Finance, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and government spokesperson, they warned the Office of the AG that its failure to act on this matter would result in them scaling up this matter to other arms of government, including Parliament for redress. The letter further said one thing certain was that SPLM would use all in its power to ensure that this money was paid back.

On the other hand, the online petition, which was launched by the political party through its vehicle of communication; Impalampala FM (Facebook page), had reached 45 916 people by close of business yesterday. The petition was launched last Tuesday. Shongwe said they directed the letter to the AG’s Office because it was the custodian of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini. Shongwe’s organisation wants the AG’s Office to institute processes that would compel the minister to pay back all the monies she was paid while she was on an alleged ‘unlawful’ and protracted maternity leave with full pay.

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