ALPHEOUS OFFSIDE - BUSINESS COMMUNITY

MBABANE- The business community has said government spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo had no business to question  from disassociating themselves from the King.

The business community said the government spokesperson’s utterances were uncalled for and sounded like threats. This came after on Wednesday evening, Nxumalo issued a statement, saying that government noted an ongoing trend in which business owners in the country boldly stated that their businesses did not have ties with the King.

In the statement, Nxumalo questioned why most businesspeople said they were not in partnership with the King in their business ventures. He had registered concern that most of the people who were making the disclaimers had businesses on Eswatini Nation Land (ENL) in the country where the overseer was the King.

The business community felt that Nxumalo did not understand the business owners who spoke, in different occasions, about their businesses not having royal ties. Chairperson of the Federation of Swaziland Business Community (FESBC) in the Hhohho Region Johannes Manikela said he was curious about the grounds of the government spokesperson’s utterances.

He said it was clear that he misunderstood the business owners. “Nxumalo was offside; in fact he completely misunderstood the message,” he said. He said Nxumalo’s statement implied that the businesspeople acted as if they ran businesses from their own places. He said none can disassociate themselves from the King, as long as they were in the country, where he was the ruler.

Manikela said the businessman was protecting his business from being attacked over claims that the King was a shareholder or a director of the business. “There are rumours which linked the authorities to being directors of some business in the country,” he said.

The chairperson said the businessman was only correcting the rumours and protecting his ‘blood and sweat’.
Manikela said they would not stop their members from telling the public about the directors and ownership of their businesses, more especially in this current situation in the country, where businesses linked to certain people were targets of arson attacks.

‘Explanation might not be acceptable to everyone’

MBABANE – Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo says the explanation given by the business community may not be accepted by all members of society.Nxumalo said government was not politicising or indirectly threatening businesses, but that government only sought to understand what drove their declaration and disassociation from the King.

“Government was not inferring anything more than just to get an understanding of the reasoning behind the disclaimers, which had taken a fashionable trend,” he said. He said since they had explained their logic behind the disclaimers, it was clear on government’s side. He noted, however, that despite their explanation, they should bear in mind that not everybody would agree or be convinced. “What drove government to communicate the message was and is simply to understand the disclaimers and the disassociation point of view,” he said.

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