ARSON ATTACKS TO COST TAXPAYERS OVER E100M

MBABANE – The bill to renovate and reconstruct burnt tinkhundla centres might skyrocket to over E100 million, according to Minister of Tinkhundla Administration and Development David ‘Cruiser’ Ngcamphalala.

Minister Ngcamphalala said government spent hundreds of thousands of Emalangeni in putting state of the art furniture in all the centres in a bid to ensure accessibility of services to the people. He said it was unfortunate that such furnishings and machinery were destroyed in the recent spate of arson attacks and bombings.

Making his calculations, which he alluded they were not conclusive as engineers from the Ministry of Economic Planning were still working on the matter, Ngcamphalala projected a cost of E6 million per centre for reconstruction and new furniture. The figures translate to E114 million considering the 19 tinkhundla centres that were burnt since June 2021. The minister said government had set aside E37 million for rehabilitating of 12 tinkhundla centres that were petrol-bombed, vandalised during the June/July political unrest in 2021. He said the amount was further included in the budget estimates presented by Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg for the year 2022/2023.

He further highlighted that it was unfortunate that the money used to renovate the same buildings was coming from the taxpaying citizens in the country. “We are still working with the Ministry of Economic Planning on the costing exercise in trying to ascertain the correct amount of money that is needed to re-build the destroyed centres. Now the cost of things have skyrocketed and I can say it will cost the taxpayers over E6 million to build a single structure, which includes the cost of furniture. Worth noting is that most of the structures, especially the recent ones were burnt such that they were to be totally destroyed,” he said.

Echoing the Minister’s sentiments, Communications Officer in the Ministry of Tinkhundla Nosimilo Vilakati said they were aware that more centres were bombed after the budget was passed and there was a need for contingencies to be put in place.  
She said the ministry was also aware of the recently burnt centres and would fix them as well. She said the only reason they were not in the aforementioned budget was that they were petrol-bombed after the ministry had done the assessment of those burnt in June/July.

 Budget

“Now that they are known, they have been documented and government will also prepare budget for them as well. The ministry, in collaboration with other relevant ministries, is working on the assessment and once all has been done, government will start the process,” said Vilakati. The 12 tinkhundla centres that were budgeted for included Somntongo, Ngudzeni, KuMethula, Sandleni, Maseyisini, Matsanjeni, Timphisini, Hosea, Ndzingeni, Mayiwane, Ngwempisi and Ntondozi. All these centres were burnt and some were vandalised. Some centres that were left out of the budget registered their complaints with the ministry. They were complaining that since the centres were set alight or vandalised, they had to convene meetings under trees or in temporary structures.

The ministry said they were aware of the situation in those centres and government was working around the clock to fix them. It was further revealed that Micro-projects department was handling the issue of fixing the tinkhundla. Director of Micro-projects, Sibusiso Mbingo revealed that the overall cost of building a standard single, inkhundla structure was E2.7 million which calculates to E51.3 million for the 19 tinkhundla centres, which were destroyed by the arsonists. Mbingo confirmed being engaged by the ministry on the exercise of rehabilitating the tinkhundla centres. He said as Micro-Projects, they did an assessment at the damaged tinkhundla centres, where they noted that some needed to be constructed from scratch while others would require renovations.

Mbingo said upon completing the assessment, they submitted the report to the ministry and were now waiting for the funds and a go ahead from the ministry. “We are seized with the project and we have already done the needed assessment and a report has been shared while we wait for a go ahead from the government. One can only confirm that as soon as we get the order to start we will immediately resume. It is quite expensive to build such structures and we hope the budget will be available,” he said. The tinkhundla centres that have been petrol-bombed already consist of  Somntongo, Ngudzeni, KuMethula, Sandleni, Maseyisini, Matsanjeni South, Timphisini, Hosea, Ngwempisi, Ndzingeni, Mayiwane, Ntondozi, Kwaluseni, Kukhanyeni, Dvokodvweni, Siphofaneni, LaMgabhi and most recently Zombodze Emuva.  Eswatini has 59 tinkhundla centres which are used for different services including the disbursement of grants by the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office.

Barbaric

An elderly person who preferred anonymity, in an interview decried this acts of arson and branded them as barbaric. He pointed out that the people who were going to suffer were the taxpayers as government had no other source of funds except tax collection. “This affects us, we are the people who were using the services provided at the centres and now that such a barbaric thing has happened we again have to pay for the reconstruction through our taxes. The police must just arrest this people and throw the keys away. This thing is taking the country back to stone age,” said the source.
Meanwhile, he specified that it is the people in the communities who are going to suffer by travelling long distances to towns for government services which before the petrol-bombings were now nearer to the people in the communities.

National Commissioner (NATCOM) of Police William Tsitsibala Dlamini recently offered a reward to anyone with information that would lead to the arrest of those responsible of the spate of arson attacks around the country. He sent a stern warning to the culprits and said that the police would bring to book those responsible. NATCOM pointed out that His Majesty the King had made it clear during the celebration of the Correctional day that the police should ensure that these arson attacks did not continue as per his order.

Dlamini said their responsibility was to ensure that the directive by the King was adhered to. He further warned that those who carry out these attacks face the wrath of the law. He added that those making the threats are known. Since the beginning of the June unrest, most structures were razed to the ground and the constant burning of structures by unknown people continued. Threats were issued against individuals who seem opposed to democratic changes in the country.

Government, through its decentralisation programme has been using the centres to register new birth certificates and also report deaths to easily acquire certificates for disbursement of insurance policies. These centres were also used to host development meetings as compared to the past where such meeting were held under trees.  

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