ICC STOLEN MATERIAL HAS COMPLETED A HOUSE - MP

MBABANE – Lobamba MP Michael Masilela stunned legislators when he alleged that theft at the ICC and FISH construction site was so rampant that a house had been completed using the stolen material.

Masilela said he could even take the Members of Parliament (MPs) to the house in question, if they needed proof on what he was submitting about. He shared that the house was boasting costly material, like water taps, which cost no less than E25 000 and these were the same taps that had allegedly been procured for the ICC and FISH project. Masilela submitted that one of the biggest setbacks at the International Convention Centre (ICC) and Five Star Hotel (FISH) was theft and this anomaly was contributing immensely to the delay in completing the project. The MP said this during the debate of the Ministry of Finance’s annual performance report for the financial year 2023/24 in Parliament yesterday.

Argument

Masilela’s argument was that emaSwati had adopted a culture of stealing and made it a normal way of life. He said some employees at the site were complaining that the project would take forever to complete, because people were helping themselves to the building material. Masilela mentioned to the MPs that, given the setting of the project, which is within the Lobamba Constituency, he was aware of the anomalies that were ongoing at the construction site and he challenged the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, to do something about it.
“It is such a pity that when one raises these issues, the concerns are interpreted out of context and it appears as though you are attacking the country’s authority. My biggest concern is that we are stealing too much and the country will not achieve much until the issue of corruption is dealt with head-on,” he said.

According to the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development report, the ICC’s actual expenditure for the current financial year was E175 116 785 and the revised practical completion date was now December 2024. One of the challenges in this project, as highlighted in the report, include that the process of having the EXIM Bank money being disbursed was delaying, much against the expectation of the ministry. “The current budget allocation under local resources has been exhausted; any claim for work done cannot be paid under the prevailing situation,” reads the report.

Corruption

Masilela also submitted that another sad part was that when arrests were made on corruption, it was only the small fish that was made scapegoats and targeted, leaving the head-honchos scot free. This was also a concern from Speaker in the House, Jabulani ‘Buy Cash’ Mabuza, who drew the attention of the MPs to recent reports, that there were individuals ‘labangabopheki’, as revealed by the Auditor General, Timothy Matsebula. Mabuza said there was need to disclose the names of those individuals, so that legally, action could be taken against them. The Speaker said as it was, people were making their own assumptions from such statements and unfortunately everyone was put in the same basket, because people did not know who these people were. “Why make such statements if the people referred to will not be disclosed. We need to know who these people are and if they have indeed committed acts of crime, they should face the law,” Mabuza said. Nhlambeni MP Manzi Zwane was concerned about the security of the AG, submitting that it was seemingly not a priority to government. He also raised a concern that the Office of the AG was not only deprived of independence, but was understaffed and as such, he could only do an audit in only nine schools out of over 200 across the country.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: