NO RECORD OF SA’S R1 BILLION FOR MOZAMBIQUE, ESWATINI – GOVT

MBABANE – “We have no record of this kind of support from our neighbours.”

This was government’s response to reports of a share of R1 billion sent allegedly sent by South Africa (SA) to assist Mozambique and Eswatini on the crises which had befallen these two countries. A South African Rand is equivalent to the country’s Lilangeni. The response was made by Acting Government Spokesperson Thabile Mdluli. Reiterating government’s response was Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Thuli Dladla, who said the ministry was not aware of an amount of R1 billion distributed among Eswatini and Mozambique by SA. This comes after a news ticker which was displayed on broadcasting channel eNCA, horizontally in the lower third of the screen space with the words ‘SA sent R1bn to assist Mozambique and Eswatini’ raised eyebrows from members of the public who questioned whether the country had indeed received these funds.

Summit

Minister Dladla said they were yet to receive information of this nature and if in fact the information presented by eNCA was true, then they would soon find out at the SADC Extraordinary Summit which was due for April 15 and was to be attended by the Prime Minister, Cleopas Dlamini. The minister was questioned on whether the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) would make such a commitment or whether SA, independently, would make this sort of contribution. “If SADC has in fact made this contribution, then we would have to wait until April 15 to figure out whether this is in fact possible. However, for now it has not been communicated to my office. If it is a SADC funding or contribution, a summit is needed for this amount to be approved, therefore, it is safe to wait for feedback from that event to see whether this is in fact true,” said Dladla.

The South African news broadcasting station attached this news ticker during an interview with SA Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Relation and Cooperation Naledi Pandor, after the SADC Troika ministerial meeting in preparation and formulation of recommendations for the extraordinary summit. During the interview, Pandor was speaking on the biggest obstacles when it came to deploying troops in Mozambique, stating that these obstacles were cost and preparedness. In her remarks, during the ministerial meeting, Pandor said SADC sincerely believed that all the efforts made by member States were absolutely necessary and not in vain. “The biggest obstacles in intervention is cost, to deploy forces is very expensive in any country, because you have to meet a number of areas of costs.  The second obstacle is preparedness for confronting fairly sophisticated well-armed and seemingly well-funded terrorist groups,” she said, when questioned about obstacles of deploying troops to Mozambique.

Contacted

The SA Ministry of Foreign Affairs was also reached for comment, however, when Minister Pandor was called, another woman answered the phone, indicating that indeed the ministry had been contacted, however, when this reporter stated the reason for the call she hung up. Recently, government denied reports that the King had allegedly removed Eswatini on the summit’s agenda as an agenda of the summit. Daily Maverick, a South African news publication, alleged that His Majesty King Mswati III made a last minute move, which it claimed raised concerns that he could be determined to conduct the proposed national dialogue on his own terms, despite his agreement with SA President Cyril Ramaphosa last year. The publication further alleged that Pandor did not explain why Eswatini had been removed from the original agenda of the ministerial meeting but that sources had said it was done at the King’s request.

Acting Government Spokesperson Thabile Mdluli said there was no truth to the circulating reports. Instead, she said the Summit of the SADC Organ Troika Plus Mozambique and Eswatini was announced a few weeks ago and as a country, Eswatini was requested to provide a report on the civil situation.

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