DAGGA DRIVES ECONOMY - MPS

LOBAMBA – “Dagga is the driver of the economy.”

This confession was made when the House of Assembly and Finance Portfolio Committee met with the Ministry of Finance to deliberate on the Anti-Money Laundering and Finance of Terrorism Prevention (AMLFTP) Act miscellaneous amendments Bill of 2024. The Members of Parliament (MP) during their interventions to the Bill that was tabled with a certificate of urgency said they were concerned because the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Anti-Corruption Acts were targeted at the wrong people.

They stated that some of these people clamped down through the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) do not steal anything from anyone, but those who were taking money from emaSwati through shady investment schemes were roaming the streets. The debate that led even the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, to suggest other ways of crafting laws, was prompted by the limits that are posed by the amendment Bill in terms of the amount of hard cash people are allowed to bank at once, as well as when crossing the border gate.

Amendment

The MPs said they feel that some of the laws would discourage people from using the banking systems yet at the same time, they would be arrested for being found with loads of cash.
During the debate, Sigwe MP David Ngcamphalala broke the ice and questioned the minister of Finance if the amendment Bill he brought before them is going to accommodate those who are getting their money through other sectors of the economy that are deemed illegal. The MP acknowledged that some of the money obtained in that business sector was not banked, but it was circulating in the country and boosting the economy.

The Chairperson of the Finance Committee and Lobamba Lomdzala MP, Marwick Khumalo, shared with the MPs that he was once told by a prominent business person that Eswatini does not need to pass laws that will legalise the cultivating and selling of dagga. Still, the sector should be left as it is. “He said the economy was booming because of the dagga industry. If you control the dagga, it will affect the economy,” he said.Khumalo stated that the shadow economy strengthens the country’s economy because people make money and invest it back into the country.

Beautiful

“Most areas have beautiful structures built by emaSwati. If you can ask some of the homesteads about their source of income, they might raise eyebrows. I am saying the economy is strong, everyone is opening a hardware store, emaSwati are buying from these hardware stores, and you can see where the money is coming from,” he said. The MP said politicians are caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to whether dagga should be legalised or not. The reason is that the expensive licences might force a lot of people out of business and put them in jail, thus other businesses that rely on the dagga sector might be affected as well.

Mafutseni MP Sabelo Mtetwa took the debate even higher, as he bluntly stated that he was not impressed with the AML and Anti-Corruption laws in the country. The MP said he feels that the laws are only targeting dagga farmers and dealers and leaving people who steal from emaSwati through pyramid schemes. The MP said law enforcement agencies such as the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) are targeting dagga farmers and dealers yet they do not steal from anyone they just cultivate the precious herb.

Criminals

“The dagga growers and dealers are just trying to earn a living and they are not crooking anyone, but in the end, they suffer more than hard-core criminals. This does not seem right as the double standards applied by the ACC when dealing with cases show that the country is exposed or even the ACC is corrupt. We are going to pass a law that the ACC should implement and the very same ACC will be conducting corrupt activities. Dagga dealers once they bank their money are followed yet they do not steal that money, but those who have stolen millions from emaSwati are left scot-free,” he said. Mtetwa pleaded with the minister to champion laws that would uplift emaSwati not suppress  them, since the problem with the laws is only applied to the struggling liSwati and leaving out the high-ranking officials.

The minister of Finance shocked the legislators in his response as he confirmed that indeed the ‘green crop’ was a huge driver of the economy. “Let me start with our ‘green crop’ that is very lucrative in Eswatini. You put it very well if you say as legislators we have a problem. I agree it is a huge economic driver we cannot bluff each other here. For us to have a law that says it is illegal and for us not to apply the law puts us into trouble internationally,” he said. This is because Eswatini is a member of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG), which is a financial action task force which is a regional body. Periodically, countries undergo an assessment in compliance with the task force of 14 recommendations.

Drafted

He noted that the second round assessment was conducted in 2019 and the report was issued in June 2022. The country’s laws and implementation on AMLFPA were found wanting, hence the ministry drafted the miscellaneous Bill. With that in place, the minister said it is time for Eswatini to look at the law and understand that it should be tailor-made for Eswatini and be crafted in a way that emaSwati wants it.  “I will recommend that we have a highly proposed law in this case. We craft it in a way that we protect the small man who is doing whatever he has to do,” he said.

The minister said the problem with the draft law he saw that aimed at legalising dagga was somehow making the industry fine but everyone else not fine.  He said if the law could be tailor-made for emaSwati, they could be able to stand strong and defend the nation from the assessment with the backing of the law. “I plead that we look at this and craft it in a way that works for us so that when these international bodies come, we can hold our heads up high and say we have a law and we apply the law in Eswatini,” he said.

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