GOVT SPENDS E12M ON KHUMALOS’ NEW VILLAGE

MBABANE – Government has spent E12 million on resettling the Khumalo family of Manzana to a new site at Lobamba.

The Ministry of Agriculture has asked for an additional funding of E10 million to continue with the project. Micro-Projects is the implementing agency. The Times SUNDAY has learnt that the total estimated cost of the resettlement project has been reduced from E55 million to E22 million. The Khumalos have already moved to their new homes. This reflects an E33 million reduction.

The resettlement affects the family of the late former Senator Nkom’nophondvo Khumalo, the father of Lobamba Lomdzala MP Marwick Khumalo and ex-Lobamba MP Majahondvwa Khumalo. It was the residence of Princess Gcinaphi, who passed away. She was the wife of the late senator. Their previous home shared boundaries with the Manzana Royal Residence. It has been established that government has built about seven houses for the Khumalo family.

Five have been constructed at Lobamba, not far from Nkhanini. The houses overlook the Mbabane-Manzini Highway. They are also not far from the site for the new Parliament. Two more houses were built at Mlindazwe and Mafutseni for the Khumalos. The four-bedroom house at Mlindazwe belongs to MP Marwick. One of his brothers has a home at Mafutseni. The number of bedrooms in the houses built at Lobamba could not be determined.

Nkom’nophondvo’s children include: Nhlanhla, Marwick, Mfanawenkhosi, Majahodvwa, Moshoeshoe, Bakhwenyana; Nhlanganiso and Nomcebo. They are also expected to receive compensations for trees and fields.
MP Marwick confirmed that government built him a four-bedroom house. He said government was compensating him for the three-bedroom house he had at Manzana. MP Marwick said the principle of resettlement was such that resettled people shouldn’t be worse off as a result of this movement.

The project number for the resettlement at Lobamba (Manzana) is G620. The actual expenditure under G620 (Resettlement at Manzana) have conflicting figures. In the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini’s Estimates from April 1, 2021 to March 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture reported that E23 million had been spent on the project.

In the estimates from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2025, government said the total sum of E12 million had been spent on the project. The government estimates for capital projects were tabled in Parliament last Friday by Neal Rijkenberg, the Minister of Finance, during the budget speech. The auditor general (AG) is at liberty to refer matters arising from such reports to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The PAC is yet to hold sittings to deliberate on the report by the ag and other financial documents. Government estimates also help the AG to identify projects that need to be audited. In 2021, this newspaper reported that the resettlement of the Khumalo home to a new site could be one of those government expensive projects. This was due to the fact that E23 million was reportedly released to the Micro-projects Unit.

However, the unit, under the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, said it did not receive the money, which was reflected in government financial records as an actual expenditure for the project as at March 31, 2020.
The Ministry of Agriculture, which is responsible for rural resettlement, claimed it transferred E23 million to the unit for the project execution. To the best of his knowledge, Bongani Masuku, the retired Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Agriculture, said the money for the resettlement programme was indeed transferred to Micro-Projects. Asked if the budget catered only for the resettlement of the Khumalo homestead, Masuku responded to the affirmative.

Concern

When a concern was raised that the project was expensive for the taxpayer, the former ps said evaluations of each and every structure and the size of the land were done and considered for appropriate costing. He said they also prepared designs for new houses, which government was expected to build for the affected family. He said the Khumalo family was not just a small family. “That’s a big family,” he was quoted to have said.

The former PS explained that  the reason the sum of E23 million was recorded in the government estimates for the years April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2024 as an actual expenditure as at March 31, 2020, was that the money was no longer in his ministry’s account. “The money appears as an actual expenditure in the financial records because it has been transferred to the Micro-Projects Unit, and that is why it reflects on our financial books as money that has been spent on the project,” he said.

The project is expected to be completed in the financial year 2020/2021. However, it is very unlikely that it would be completed at the end of this month because construction has not yet begun. The current financial year ends on March 31, 2021. Sibusiso Mbingo, the Director of Micro-Projects Unit, could only say: “we’ve not received the E23 million you are talking about.” Moshoeshoe, who liaises with the resettlement team, said they would not comment on the cost of the resettlement. He said the Khumalos embraced the resettlement.

He said they were looking forward to moving to the new site, hoping that they would enjoy life there.  “We have fruit trees such as mangoes, avocado, and we have fields that we used for ploughing maize, etc. We have water, electricity and life was just good here, but we embraced the resettlement without any qualms,” he said. There are seven modernly built houses for the Khumalo family.

Meanwhile, a senior officer involved in the project said the estimated total cost of E55 million (at that time) was to be used for demolition of the current houses, setting up of new structures and development of the land. He also assumed that the money would be used for constructing access roads to the new Parliament building, which government was expected to build in the next financial year.

Huge

He was, however, clueless about the reported actual expenditure of E23 million. He was in doubt that such a huge sum of money in the region of E55 million could be exhausted on relocating one family to a new site. “There is just no way E55 million could be exhausted on moving one family to the new site,” the senior officer had said. Attempts were made to reach out to Sibusiso Mbingo, the Director of Micro-Projects, but he had not responded to a questionnaire sent to him. It must be emphasised that this is, however, a parliamentary matter.

According to the 1995 and 2009 AfDB’s policies on involuntary resettlement, people should not be made worse off as a result of AfDB-financed projects.  The Manzana project is financed by the Government of Eswatini. The general principle is that affected persons should be compensated at full replacement cost for lost property. Anyone who is not eligible for compensation for land that will be expropriated for the project, has a right to be resettled in a suitable location with access to all necessary services and facilities. With a view to improving the living standards of poor households, livelihood assistance should be provided to resettled families.

Affected persons are entitled to access to information about the project, its resettlement impacts and compensation rates and they are to be provided with genuine options about which they are to be meaningfully consulted. The Manzana project is similar to the Lozitha one. A village below Lozitha High School was set up. The families, mainly royals, were moved to allow the expansion of Lozitha Palace to accommodate the Mandvulo Grand Hall. Government spent E35.8 million on the Lozitha Village. Universally, experts say land sustains every aspect of human life, providing fundamental life-support systems and the foundation of economy and society.

Section 211 (1) of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini provides that all land (including any existing concessions) in Eswatini, save privately held title-deed land, shall continue to vest in Ingwenyama in trust for the emaSwati as it vested on April 12, 1973. Save as may be required by the exigencies of any particular situation, it is stated in the supreme law that a citizen of Eswatini, without regard to gender, shall have equal access to land for normal domestic purposes. Section 211 (3) makes it clear though that a person shall not be deprived of land without due process of law. Where a person is deprived, the Constitution provides that the affected person shall be entitled to prompt and adequate compensation for any improvement on that land or loss consequent upon that deprivation unless otherwise provided by law.

It is provided that agreements, the effect of which is to vest ownership in land in Eswatini in a non-citizen or a company the majority of whose shareholders are not citizens, shall be of no force and effect unless that agreement was made prior to the commencement of this Constitution. A provision of this chapter may not be used to undermine or frustrate an existing or new legitimate business undertaking of which land is a significant factor or base, according to the Constitution.

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