MINISTER MABULALA, PS IN TOILET TENSION

MBABANE – The principal secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Finance did not take kindly to the minister of Public Service using her office toilet while she was out of the country.

This comes after the Minister of Public Service Mabulala Maseko, allegedly used the PS’s office toilet while she was out of the country on official government business. According to an impeccable source, two weeks ago, the PS, Sizakele Dlamini, was away on a work trip. When she returned, she was informed about what had happened in her office while she was away.
According to the source, Dlamini’s personal assistant (PA) received a phone call from Maseko’s PA, informing her that the minister was coming to the ministry (Finance) on the sixth floor urgently.

Bathroom

The source stated that immediately after the phone call had ended, the minister was already at the door, requiring that he be allowed to the PS’s bathroom. The source said, at first, they thought he wanted to see the newly-refurbished toilet, since the building was being renovated. Worth noting is that the Ministry of Public Service occupies the third floor of the building, while the Ministry of Finance is located on the sixth floor of the same building. The source said the PA unlocked the bathroom door and allowed the minister to enter. The source further mentioned that some of those present within the ministry were left puzzled as to why Maseko was keen on visiting the PS’s office bathroom when there were other floors, which had bathrooms as well that he could have used. The main contention was that the minister is a male while the PS is a female and ideally, the two sexes do not share private rooms. After the minister had gone out of the bathroom, according to the source, junior officers wondered why Maseko opted to use Dlamini’s toilet, especially because she is female, instead of the minister of Finance’s since they were both male.

Female

“The minister told the junior staff members that he would call Dlamini and let her know that he had used her toilet,” said the source. The PS, when called regarding the matter, confirmed that when she returned from her trip, she was made aware of what had transpired in her restroom while she was away. When asked if she had reported her grievances to her authorities, she said she had not. At the time of compiling this report, Dlamini alleged that the minister had not spoken to her about  the matter. She said many things came to her mind concerning what the minister had allegedly done. She noted that even in public spaces, men and women did not share bathrooms. “I am still shattered and I do not know what to think,” she said. Minister Maseko, however, denied ever using the PS’s bathroom. Instead, the minister said he constantly went to the Ministry of Finance because their ministries worked hand-in-hand. He said he was surprised to learn that it was an issue that he had gone to another ministry and used their facilities.

Barking

“This is not an issue really. We have bigger things to deal with than barking about who used what,” he said, when interviewed last evening. Maseko said the three ministries were interlinked and he felt these were petty issues that were not changing the scope or serving the nation they were supposed to serve. The other ministry he was referring to is that of Economic Planning and Development. He added that these days these ministries were busy with the budget and officers were constantly at each other’s offices. It was gathered that the minister had since reached out to Dlamini and explained why he used her bathroom during her absence. It is said that the minister stated that there was no water on the third floor, where his ministry is located. Worth noting is that the Ministry of Public Works and Transport is currently renovating some government offices, resulting in certain bathrooms not being functional.

A senior officer in one of the ministries said, on the day of the incident, the third floor (where Maseko’s ministry is located), did not have water due to the ongoing renovations taking place in the building. The officer stated that there was water in the other ministries within the building, which included the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development on the fourth and fifth floors as well as the Ministry of Public Service from the first to the third floor.

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