Microprojects, fund debate in Senate
LOBAMBA – The inclusion of Microprojects in the Administration of the Community Development Special Fund Regulations divided senators as they had differing views about the move.
This led to the legislators convening a caucus. Different views and concerns were raised by the senators during a motion to adopt the Administration of the Community Development Special Fund Regulations of 2023 in terms of Section 253 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini Act, 001 of 2005.
The fund, according to the regulations, would be controlled by Microprojects to give the greenlight to proposals that would be brought forward to develop communities and further monitor the entire funding of the projects. This fund follows an almost similar set-up of the Rural Development Fund (RDF). However, the only difference is that it is overseen by Microprojects and is directly funded by the Central Bank of Eswatini and donors.
During the debate, some senators felt that the regulations had a number of misses, which needed to be included before they adopted them. Some senators felt that the regulations should have not been classified under ‘motion without notice’ because they needed to be debated further, as there were a lot of amendments that had to be made to it.
The first miss of the regulations was noted by Senator Busi Dlamini, who was also the mover of the motion. She said the regulations should clearly detail that communities were not supposed to extend any structures that were constructed through Microprojects.
She stated that the reason she felt the regulations should be clear was because a number of projects that were constructed by Microprojects in communities either collapsed or were destroyed.
She said that was solely due to the fact that some communities grabbed their unqualified contractors to extend the structures, which eventually mess up the buildings and designs and rendering them vulnerable to disasters. The senator said some schools extended some classes that were constructed by Microprojects by roping in unqualified builders and those schools were blown away by winds. “At the end of the day, it looks like Microprojects did a shoddy job,” she said.
The senator also noted that some communities extended bridges which later collapsed.
Another issue that was raised by the senator touched on funds that were supposed to be raised by community members before they qualified to be funded under the regulations. The regulations state that the community members should raise 25 per cent of the entire funds they would require from the fund. She said 25 per cent was too high, noting that even under the RDF, some communities could not even raise the 10 per cent of the funding.
Glory
Some senators felt Microprojects was getting all the glory from communities because it was the only government department delivering projects. On the other hand the senators lauded the government department which is under the portfolio of economic planning for delivering on its mandate, remarked that there were issues about its involvement in the Community Development Special Fund.
One of the senators that dwelled on the future of Microprojects to be given the task due to its current performance was Senator Chief Mshengu. He said there was a lot that needed to be looked at before roping in Microprojects for the task. “The reason Microprojects looks like it is doing all the work is because of its current management. The question is what will happen tomorrow,” he said.
Some senators had uncertainty about the future of the fund’s performance when the current management leaves office. They wondered if it would be able to perform as it was doing in the coming years. Another issue was why traditional structures were side-lined in the regulations yet the Fund was said to improve communities.
Overlooked
Other senators, including Chief Ngalokhulu Mabuza and Moi Moi Masilela wondered why the fund was overlooked by Microprojects instead of it being under the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development. They stated that the ministry already had structures with rural communities.
Chief Ngalokhulu urged the Senate not to rush to adopt the regulation with the several loopholes and concerns they raised. “I would suggest that we wait and not rush to adopt it, otherwise we will make similar mistakes that were made when the Sexual Offence and Domestic Violence (SODV) Bill was enacted,” he said.
Senator Isaac Magagula raised concerns about the extension of the funding of projects. The regulations indicate that the maximum cost of each project per annum shall not exceed E15 million. He noted that the limitation of the funds needed to be relooked. Magagula said there were a lot of loopholes in the regulations that needed to be deliberated. “It is unfortunate that these are regulations because if it was a Bill we would have called stakeholders to deliberate on,” he said.
He also noted the absence of Cabinet ministers that were included in the regulations, which were those of Economic Planning and Development and Tinkhundla Administration. The only minister who was present was the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg.
Blame
Senator Masilela said he felt the other ministers were absent on purpose because they wanted to shift the blame to the minister of finance should anything go wrong with the regulations. “They want to say uyatentela lomlungu masekungahambi kahle,” he said.
Meanwhile, other senators’ view was that the regulations should be adopted while the loopholes were corrected along the way. Deputy Senate President, Ndumiso Mdluli urged senators not to dwell much on the misses but look at the bigger task at hand. He said, already, Microprojects was conducting projects in communities, hence it was crucial that it was granted the greenlight.
He also explained that Microprojects was rightly placed under the Ministry of Economic Planning, therefore Senators should not make a fuss about it.
“Microprojects is already conducting a number of projects including the construction of factory shells in rural communities. If we stop the regulations we would be derailing the projects,” he said.
There were then different views on where the minister should give responds to the different submissions that were presented by the Senators. They felt that it was too early for the minister to respond, given the concerns of the regulations.
Senate President, Lindiwe Dlamini, after noting the number of concerns that were raised, opted for senate to go to a caucus and deliberate further on the regulations before they were adopted since it was moved under a motion without notice.
It was then that the members of the media were urged to exclude the Senate. At the time of compiling the report, the Senators were deliberating on the regulations and had not reached a conclusion to adopt them.