Mbabane: Despite that former Electoral and Boundaries Committee (EBC) Deputy Commissioner, Ncumbi Maziya and others received their ex/gratia payments, former EBC Chairman, Chief Gija Dlamini has not been paid anything.
Others who are reportedly received their payments are Lubombo Regional Administrator (RA) Themba Msibi and former Minister of Labour and Social Security, Winnie Magagula.
Circular No. 2 of 2017 provided that an ex-gratia payment was payable to parliamentarians and full time councils members (Emabandla) who were not returning to Parliament and, or full time Emabandla or any other political office at the end of their term of office. The ex-gratia is a once off payment equal to 12 months (1 year) basic salary before taxation.
It was reliably established by Independent News that Ncumbi Maziya’s ex-gratia payment of over E600 000 was approved by the Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg while nothing was said about the others’, after pressure was allegedly exerted on the minister by higher authorities. The EBC officers’ 11-year contracts started in 2008 and ended in 2019.
According to the Circular, Maziya was supposed to be paid only if he was not appointed to as a member of one of the councils was purportedly disregarded as he was appointed by His Majesty King Mswati III to serve as a member of the Ludzidzini Royal Council.
In recent publications, when asked on the payment of some of the officers, Chief Gija referred questions to the then Head of the Secretariat, Richard Phungwayo. Phungwayo opined that the commission was cash strapped hence it could not fulfil its obligations. He said the other possibility could be that the commission was still processing the payments.
He said he had heard about the issue of the non-payment of the ex-gratia to some officers but didn’t have details to verify the truth. “It might happen that they got their money because as people we are different and not treated the same,” Phungwayo is quoted to have said.
Minister of Finance
Chief Gija told this publication that he learnt that the issue of the ex/gratia payments is currently under discussion and recently he sat with the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, to engage him on the matter. He said, however, there is no guarantee that the money will be processed even after the discussions, despite the provisions of Circular No. 2 of 2017 which warrant such. “We will only heave a sigh of relief after the payments are done but as it is, things don’t look good,” said the Chief. He said talking about the matter relives past hurts as he learnt with disappointment that despite working hard in the EBC he and others could not get what was due to them. The Chief said he’d love it if he and his colleagues were paid immediately because anything can happen in this life, adding that it’d be great if he enjoyed his package with his children.
Drawn for comment, the Minister of Finance referred Independent News to the ministry’s communications officer, who recapped that the issue of the payments was still under discussion. She remained optimistic though that it’s only a question of time before the payments are done. She said it must be noted that the reappointment of Councils was delayed resulting in some of them like Ncumbi found to have been already paid, highlighting the fact that the reappointments were done staggeringly.
The communications officer defended Maziya’s payment, saying his reappointment took time, which allowed the accounts office to process it, not knowing that he would be reappointed.
EBC officer
A former EBC officer who was also not paid what belongs to him, who preferred to comment on condition of anonymity told this publication that he approached the EBC accounts office and was told he would only get it after ceasing to work for government. He said after the expiration of the EBC contract in 2019, he was told their contracts had been extended hence they could not be paid. He said the EBC accounts office allegedly misled the officers because when they assumed the new duties, they went through the same mandatory probation process of three months and during that time, they were not paid anything.
The officer went on to tell Independent News that when he quizzed the accounts office on the payment of Maziya’s he was told that such was authorized by the king and they had no say over it. The officer said he doubted that the king would put himself on such selective diversions as he’d known him to treat everyone equally.
The EBC Communications Officer, Mbonisi Bhembe, admitted knowledge of the matter but said he would only respond after talking to the committee’s accounts office. Two days later he had not responded despite promising to o so.
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