CONSUL REJECTS E4.3M HOUSE, RENTS ONE FOR E64 000 MONTHLY

MBABANE – An investigation by the PAC has unearthed that the country’s Consul General (CG) in South Africa (SA) refused to occupy a E4.3 million house, but rented a E64 000 monthly house.

The house, which was rented for a period of two years, cost government at least E1.4 million, as revealed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigation on embassies of South Africa and Mozambique report. The genesis of the matter is that during the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation’s appearance before the PAC in 2020, it transpired that the ministry had overspent on its rental budget in the Ethiopia embassy.

The ministry explained that this was due to the fact that the embassy was renting most of its staff houses in that country. The committee then recommended that the ministry should engage the Ministry of Finance and get funds to either build or buy houses in that country and then update the PAC on the progress. Giving feedback on the matter in May 2022, the ministry submitted that the engagement with the Ministry of Finance had been successful and the funds for buying the houses were availed. However, the houses could not be purchased due to civil unrest in Ethiopia and the transition government in Ethiopia suspended the sale and development of immovable property.

Unfit

Therefore, part of the money was used to purchase a house for the CG in Johannesburg, after her house was declared unfit for human occupation and it was marked for demolition. It was stated that the then controlling officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Joel Nhleko, revealed that the consul had refused to occupy the new house, which cost government E4.3 million, claiming that it was not fit for her standard, it was not safe and was located in an undesirable place. “As a result, she elected to rent a house at E64 000 a month and when the ministry found out about this and instructed her to vacate the rented house, she elected to return to the condemned house. The ministry had paid over E1.4 million in rentals over the past two years for the house for the consul in the Johannesburg Consulate,” read the PAC report.

Safety

It was also revealed in the report that the consul allegedly did not occupy the purchased house for reasons that she claimed it had structural defects; she had safety concerns about as it was allegedly located in an unsafe area and that the house did not fit her status. The purchased house is located in Parkhurst Suburb in Randburg and it has three bedrooms. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, disputed this assertion as revealed in the report. It was stated that when the ministry found out and ordered her to move out of the rented house, she went back to an old house which was declared unfit for human occupation. “The committee, therefore, had to see the houses as well as engage the affected officer, the embassy and the ministry before making a recommendation in its report. The contractor who was hired in Mozambique was also hired in the SA Embassy to fix staff houses and the embassy offices and it was also found that he was paid for work not done,” read the report.

The ministry, however, recently submitted that the contactor finally fixed all the houses and completed the one he was building in Pretoria. The committee had to see the houses and verify if the work was really done before concurring that the house resolution was fully implemented. Members of the PAC who were part of the deliberations on this matter in SA were the Chairperson, Musa Kunene, Manzini Regional MP Busi Mavimbela, Mtfongwaneni MP Roy Fanourakis, Lobamba MP Allen Stewart, Mbabane West MP Musa Zwane, Mangcongco MP Oneboy Zikalala and the committee Clerk Arthur Mordaunt.

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