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STOP RELYING ON SUBVENTIONS - SAVANNAH TO RSTP, EPTC

30/01/2024 11:05:00 Sibusiso Zwane

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NOKWANE – Minister of ICT Savannah Maziya means business and wants the parastatals under her ministry to stop relying on government for subventions.

The minister of Information Communication and Technology (ICT), whom many have described as a breath of ‘fresh air’ due to her leadership and business acumen, said it was high-time some government parastatals learnt to stand on their own. Maziya had a busy day yesterday, where she toured two parastatals under her portfolio, the first being the Royal Science and Technology Park (RSTP). She vowed to scrutinise the RSTP budget, as she demanded that every cent should count. She said RSTP was the engine of the ministry, and as such, the organisation should do things correctly. She said at the moment, RSTP did not have an image out there and it seemed it was not doing quite well. In that regard, the minister said they had a lot of ground to cover, in terms of reputation.

Workers

During the engagements between the minister and the staff members, one of the workers raised a concern that some of the departments had limited vehicles and this limited their services to the nation. In response, the minister said she could not promise them cars. However, she said if they could present their solid client base, which they wanted to service and would in turn generate revenue, the ministry could see what it could do. “We cannot have enough cars because every government department, including the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS), want vehicles,” the minister said. She said government did not have enough money to buy all the required cars, thus she would demand that they should present solid clients, which they wanted to service with the vehicles they wanted. “We should move away from always asking. There are many ‘children’ in this ‘family’,” the minister said.

She said they needed to do better in handling their finances. She said they needed to be responsible by being innovative and in a cost-effective manner. “It has been noted that some things were bought at ridiculous prices. Therefore, we will scrutinise the budget we give you. You need to stretch what you have and be able to do more with less,” the minister said. She said RSTP should globalise its services, as opposed to focusing on selling locally, because the establishment would not grow as Eswatini had a population of 1.2 million. She said inasmuch as it was important to serve the nation, it was equally imperative for them to globalise and commercialise their services to stop relying on government. For example, the minister said at RSTP, they had a state-of-the-art national contact centre and national data server, but they did not show the country and world what they were doing.

She emphasised that government would not have money for all the things they would require, hence they needed to go out there to market their services and find ways of commercialising their programmes. “Work towards reaching your potential,” the minister said. She also challenged the RSTP staff members to update themselves in the field and outside their disciplines. She added that she wanted them to move forward in a different approach, where managers should open doors for the staff members to reach their potential, instead of oppressing them. Also, she said managers should treat the staff members well and in turn, they (workers) should return the favour. The minister added that she had an open door policy and urged the staff members to feel free to approach the office of the chief executive officer (CEO) and principal secretary if they had ideas that would be a game changer. “If you feel they are not treating you well, do not hesitate to come straight to me,” the minister said. She added that all she wanted to see from the RSTP team was commitment in serving the nation.

Strategies

On another note, another staff member said in terms of strategies, there was a gap between government and RSTP. She said government planned its own strategy alone, such that there was no link with what was expected of RSTP. In that regard, the staff member said they needed to have constant exchange of information between the two. In response to that, the minister agreed with the staff members. Therefore, she said she would be meeting CEOs of the various departments which were under her ministry. Again, the minister said they would soon present the ministry’s five-year strategy to all the departments, that everyone, from CEO to cleaner, knew it. This, she said, would create a conducive environment to have seamless machinery.

Commitment

Meanwhile, RSTP CEO Vumile Dlamini thanked the minister for visiting them and for her advice. He also said they appreciated the commitment she made that she would work hand-in-hand with RSTP as they put the plans into action. It is worth noting that in the past few years, government’s subvention to RSTP was not less than E60 million. At Eswatini Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (EPTC), the minister also challenged the corporation to find ways to decrease its reliance on government subvention. Maziya said EPTC must rely less on government, but still service the public sector and the general public more. She stated that they must be able to generate their own income. “Right now government gives you money, but you cannot look on government to come and save you. We have a strong Board and very smart people around us; we got to be able to use the young people to create ways to sustain EPTC,” Maziya said.

According to Maziya, in the first two weeks in office, they put together a strategy and further looked at how they could collaborate with the other agencies to be more effective. She said it was a fact that post offices globally were closing shop and they should find ways to keep theirs relevant. Maziya challenged EPTC to be future thinkers and not to be stuck in the past. She said they should come up with ideas and projects to ensure that the parastatal continued to be relevant, while also continuing to service the business community and the general public. “The country needs to lead in ICT and we must find ways to ensure that we lead,” she said.The EPTC Board Chairperson, Mtiti Fakudze, said the minister gave them a mandate that they should think about the future.

Challenges

Fakudze said their mandate was not to think about challenges but to find ways to avert all challenges within EPTC. He acknowledged that funds were a challenge at EPTC, but through their strategy, they would foster a turnaround. He said they needed to think fast and be ahead, so that EPTC was competitive. Fakudze thanked the minister for showing them the direction but they were yet to sit down and engage as a Board. The minister assured the Board that she had an open door policy. She said she was happy to advise where she could. Maziya explained that she would have issues if she kept coming back to the same problems and excuses, that government was not giving them money. She said government coffers were not growing but they could grow if they worked together as a team.