Urgent need to pass Decentralisation Bill
MATSAPHA – The 11th Parliament is racing against time to make history by passing a law that will address the nation’s concerns about service delivery in the country.
The members of the 11th Parliament have about a year left in their fiveyear term, which started in 2018 and the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM), Themba Masuku, has urged them to pass the Decentralisation Bill of 2021 into a law that will become the second highest piece of legislation after the Constitution of 2005.
He said the Bill was first introduced during the 8th Parliament and had been brought to the House in the past three terms without success.
The DPM said this yesterday during the official opening of an ongoing consultative meeting on the Bill, which is hosted by the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development. The meeting is held at Esibayeni Lodge.
Masuku said the passing of this Bill into law would be a historic milestone, which they would all be proud of. He said this was because the leadership of the country had long been awaiting this piece of legislation as it would define the purpose for the Tinkhundla Political System.
Constitution
“In fact, this piece of legislation is the second highest after the Constitution of the country. This legislation was first initiated during the 8th Parliament, without success. Since then, it has been brought to the House throughout all the past three Parliaments,” the DPM said.
Therefore, he said it was a pleasure for him to be part of this noble endeavour, which was aimed at finalising the development of the Decentralisation Bill. He said this was particularly because decentralisation had always been in his heart.
“Most importantly, you will all recall that the decentralisation of government is a long standing commitment of the kingdom. In fact, as far as I can remember, decentralisation has always been the cornerstone in the design of the Tinkhundla System of Governance. Your coming to this meeting, therefore, gives me hope and assurance that this time the Bill is finally going to go through,” the DPM said.
He expressed hope that the members of the House would be pleased to learn that the current Cabinet had committed to seeing the full implementation of the entire decentralisation programme, including this Bill.
He said this was in particular because as Cabinet, they had realised that the entire government could best deliver public services to the people within a decentralised system.
“Most importantly, we have noted the constitutional provision that the State shall be guided by the principle of decentralisation in the conduct of public affairs as provided for in Section 58 (2) of our Constitution,” he said.
In fact, the DPM said the full implementation of decentralisation was long overdue if they looked at its intention and purpose. Therefore, he challenged the Minister of Tinkhundla Administration and Development, David ‘Cruiser’ Ngcamphalala, MPs and all their stakeholders, to commit to ensuring that the Bill, would go through during the tenure of this Parliament.
According to the DPM, if they could all achieve this historic milestone, they would no doubt make history, not only for themselves, but for generations to come. He said this would further bring to fruition the constitutional provision that; “The tinkhundla units or areas, inspired by a policy of decentralisation of State power, are the engines of development and the central pillars underpinning the political organisation and economic infrastructure of the country through which social services to the different parts of the Swazi (Eswatini) community are facilitated and delivered.” Section 80 (3).
Implications
Thereafter, he said in a number of instances, he heard concerns on the budget implications of the implementation of the Decentralisation Bill. However, he assured the meeting that with the right approach and commitment, decentralisation would save more resources than it would cost.
On another note, the DPM said he would not take for granted the efforts made since 2011 to pilot the Bill which was titled ‘The Regional and Tinkhundla Administration Bill’ as that also undertook extensive consultations. He said the process might not have been a success, but careful consideration of all views and issues that directly impacted the approval of that Bill had been made in the development of this Decentralisation Bill.
In his personal experience, he said working with the Ministry of Tinkhundla, together with government, could also confirm that without this legislation, life had been difficult for both the people of Eswatini and government, in ensuring sustainable development.
In that regard, he said with the Decentralisation Bill in place, they could all be rest assured that the challenges they faced in their development and service delivery efforts over the years would be a thing of the past.
Planning
As an example, he said to this day, all the coordination efforts by the ministry were ad hoc and based on the general understanding of all partners at the different levels. Furthermore, he said the roles and responsibilities of government in addressing issues of planning and allocation of resources were largely centralised without this Bill.
Moreover, he said he realised that the financial challenges faced by government would not have allowed them to gather and discuss the Bill.
In that regard, he passed special thanks to their partner, the United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) for their support towards finalising this important piece of legislation. He said without the support from UNPD, decentralisation would have only remained a dream.