Payment of rates and rent paid to the ratepayer landlord represents a major item in the budget of most families in each urban zone of Eswatini. It is completely reasonable that every ratepayer and, indeed, every resident is fully assured that the respective councils are on an honest and committed path to cost-effective service delivery in the urban areas.
Respect for the entitlement of ratepayers and residents is central to the code of conduct of each council and its management team. Respect requires more than just being treated politely in face-to-face communication. It also requires openness and a sense of sharing vision, plans and progress. Our city councils require a high proportion of their operating expenditure from rates collected. Remember the expression: “He who pays the piper calls the tune?”
Well, that doesn’t need to be taken literally, but when you consider that the Municipal Council of Mbabane needs the rates revenue to cover around more than 90 per cent of its operating costs, it demands a strong commitment to sharing. A formally constituted Mbabane City Ratepayers and Residents Association, representing the needs and wishes of its members and participants, is the major stakeholder. But the association, and the thousands of people that it serves, has not, for many years, received the respect it deserved from the council.
In recent times, one big issue was the council not willing to share the project agreement details of the public-private partnership (PPP) regarding the proposed E500 million new Civic Centre project. The association simply wanted to help minimise risk of money spilling out and unaccounted for. Today, we have the Eswatini National Provident Fund (ENPF) Infrastructure Fund, launched by the Municipal Council of Mbabane on July 10, 2026; a project not in any respect shared beforehand with the association. The article in both national newspapers spent almost the entire content on what lawyers used to call ‘puff’. The most stylish narrative you’ll ever read, but for detail tells little beyond the ENPF rates – evidently a substantial amount – no longer going to the council to help cover operating costs. They will go into this fund to finance the big capital expenditure of the future. Especially the one that’s screaming – improvement of the roads.
So where does the ENPF fit in there? The council is allowing the ENPF to participate in a fund from money that the ENPF would normally lose in its entirety, as an expense paid to the council. The ENPF will clearly share the benefits from investment of the fund money. So why can’t the council do it alone and get all the benefit? In the absence of detail, it simply looks like piggy bank accounting. Why not simply have a separate bank account and rules that it can’t be touched unless for the designated capital expenditure. If there is some special investment opportunity that can only be obtained with the assistance of the ENPF, then let’s hear about it.
But not a word.
And why does the big Fonteyn project stand alone? Surely the commitment is to maintain the entire road infrastructure. The council allowed many months of pure inactivity in road maintenance and horrid, deep and sharp potholes, with cars swerving all over the place to avoid them. Among the ‘puff’, we’ve heard talk of ‘the Smart City’. No city is ‘smart’ where roads are like they are and some students having to walk to school every day on roads without pavements. One life lost will be an appalling tragedy. Please get together with the police, with speed limits and active police visibility in those areas before it’s too late!
Another expression: “The devil lies in the details.” The recently published annual accounts of the Mbabane Council reveal that at March 31, 2026 total debtors – mostly rates – were E90 million which, arithmetically, is 67 per cent of a year’s rates. That’s a crazy ratio; and with a E35 million provision for doubtful debts. So, what are they doing about it? Not a comprehensible word.
Those ratepayers who are seriously challenged – the ‘indigents’ – should be protected. But others who have not paid must be placed at risk of losing their property. They’ll soon pay up. That is clearly not happening. Perhaps the massive backlog of serious criminal cases puts rates debts at the back of the queue. If so, is the council designing a parallel judicial system with appropriate staff and infrastructure? Let’s get the details instead of the silence. For every million Emalangeni in unpaid rates, existing ratepayers and residents – including the very poor ones – are having to cover the shortfall. That’s not fair.
The previous committee of the association did a good job in difficult circumstances, but one area for improvement is through councillor and ward communication. The council should allocate a budget and instruct councillors to hold six-monthly meetings with ratepayers and residents, properly advertised and perhaps renting local school and church halls for meetings. Ratepayers and residents will get more interested and put pressure on councillors to bring vital messages to the council meetings, such as ‘Please get the roads properly repaired; and now!’ Not just spoken; screamed; politely, of course! Action follows.
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