MPS QUESTION E24.4M ACC BUDGET

LOBAMBA – Members of Parliament called to question the budget allocation to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), yet the institution has not achieved any successful prosecutions.

The ACC is investigating 254 cases and registered 28 complaints in the current second quarter. Though it registered 28 complaints in the past three months, 22 of those cases were converted to investigations and three were referred to other agencies, such as the Royal Eswatini Police service, Human Rights Commission and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

The ACC’s current budget allocation for the financial year 2024/25 is E24 460 839. Dvokodvweni MP Sifiso Shabalala, said it is worrying that no case was finalised in court.
Hhukwini MP Alec Lushaba wanted to know why there was no progress in the investigation of cases at the ACC.  Mafutseni MP Sabelo Mtetwa said the statistics on cases dealt with by the ACC were too low, despite that corruption is rampant.

“They must not only arrest dagga dealers, but many other criminals,” he said. On another note, Members of Parliament (MP) have raised concern that the judicial system must be adequately funded from government coffers, to avoid State capture by agencies with deep pockets. Hhukwini MP Lushaba said the director of public prosecution has 10 units aimed at investigating and curbing crime, but they all rely on being supported by the international community with funding.

He warned that the saying; ‘he who pays the piper calls the tunes’ could hold true for Eswatini, after those who invested their money in the judicial system start dictating the course of justice to be taken. During the debate of the performance report for the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, the MPs challenged Minister Prince Simelane, to ensure that the Judiciary addresses the concerns raised by MPs.

MP Lushaba said he is certain that if another Sibaya (People’s Parliament)was to be called, all that the people said about the justice system last year would be repeated. He said if the Judiciary continues to fail to implement recommendations of Parliament, while hiding under the guise of Section 141 (a regulation presumed to avoid public officials’ interference into the Judiciary), Parliament also reserves the right to act likewise.

Budget

“If the concerns we have about the Judiciary are not rectified, we wish to say that we will also apply Section 141 and withhold their budget until they comply. MP Lushaba said the ministry did not even sanction the Judicial Commission of Inquiry (JCI) into the Master of the High Court yet it continued. He wondered which budget was being used for the work of the JCI.He said at the JCI, those in the Judiciary were merely investigating themselves, such that there is little hope of a substantial breakthrough in the cases brought to it.

“Nothing at the Ministry of Justice has been done to make emaSwati happy. These are merely administrative accounts of the state of affairs in the ministry and do very little to address the concerns on the Judiciary. It has been a year since Sibaya said things, but I wonder if the ministry is happy about progress. Lushaba wondered why the ministry was allocated a lesser budget than the Judiciary. On another note, he said it is wrong for Parliament to be continually expected to approve monies for the Judiciary, even if it does not respond to Parliament concerns.

Tension

“People say Parliament is for sale, but we refute this. We are not for sale,” he said. MP Thandeka Mavuso asked the minister if he had done something to resolve the tension between the chief justice (CJ) and the Law Society of Swaziland.  The minister appealed with Lushaba not to withhold the budget, saying there was a lot of progress in the ministry. He also said his ministry had good relations with the Judiciary. The minister said the Judiciary was allocated E110 million and is released on a quarterly basis. The released funds by the end of the second quarter amounted to E62 615 801 and the total expenditure plus commitments was E45 585 563.91.

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