SIKHANYISO REFUND: WE WILL TAKE MATTER UP – ‘GAWUZELA’

MANZINI – Seemingly, the issue of the demand of having Princess Sikhanyiso, the Minister of ICT, repay the money she earned while on protracted leave will be taken up by MPs.

This is because some Members of Parliament (MPs) are in the process of consulting with the electorate on what they should do about the matter involving the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) minister. In fact, one of the parliamentarians, Mduduzi ‘Gawuzela’ Simelane, whose constituency is Siphofaneni, said as they represented the people of Eswatini, they should not be scared to pursue anything from the public, as long as it was within the perimeters of the law.

Maternity

He said some members of the public had already raised the issue of the minister and they did so referring to the law. The public referred to the Employment Act of 1980, which says an employee is entitled to a maternity leave of three months. They also quoted Section 72 of the Constitution, which speaks about the exercise of minister’s functions during absence or illness, which says; “Where a minister is absent from Eswatini or is by reason of illness or any other cause unable to exercise the functions of the office of that minister, the minister may, after consultation with the PM, delegate those functions to another minister in writing for a maximum period not exceeding six months.” Princess Sikhanyiso had been away from work for about 14 months.

MP Simelane said in the House of Assembly, the Office of the Attorney General (AG) was asked how many times the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade, Manqoba Khumalo, would act as minister of ICT. He alleged that the response they got from the AG’s Office was presented as if it was lawful to renew the status of Minister Khumalo as acting ICT minister.
Thereafter, he said after the matter was raised by some members of the public, the ICT minister publicly apologised for allegedly breaching the Constitution. “This means that the AG’s Office might have misled us. However, I am still consulting because if indeed the AG’s Office misled the House, it should apologise too. In fact, the question will be; how can we trust it going forward?” the MP said.

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