Times SUNDAY stands by ‘Govt spends over E100m on Border committee’ story

MBABANE – In response to the statement issued by the Border Determination Special Committee in today's publication (Page 11) in regards to our lead story titled µGovt spends E100m on border committee', published on -anuary 28, 2024.

This publication was doing an analysis of the progress that has been made regarding the land claim by the Kingdom of Eswatini.

:hile the exercise of reclaiming the land dates back to over 30 years ago, this publication's focus was on the modern era with emphasis on how it was costing the taxpayer.

The estimated figure of E100 million is from 1 6, when the committee was appointed by the country's authorities and it includes the salaries that have been paid to the members of the committee, plus other costs including travel costs to different meetings and engagement of consultancy services.

The estimate is based on the figures provided for in the circulars that provide for the remuneration of the committee members.

Based on the circulars that have been used over the years to remunerate the committee, the budget that has been spent on this exercise is way above E100 million.

The issue of the budget did not need a response from the committee since it is not responsible for how it is remunerated.

It would have been unfair to ask the committee how much has been spent so far, since the budget comes from the government, which is why the story was justified by the reference to the circulars.

In terms of background, in as far as the article is concerned, on -anuary 26, 2023, this reporter called the current Chairman, Prince David, who advised that the right people to comment on the progress made, in as far as the land claim is concerned were those members who had served in the committee for 15 years.

He identified them as Bheka Mabuza and Mabili Dlamini.

A call was then made to Mabuza and he was informed that this publication was working on an article regarding the huge mandate that the country¶s authorities gave to the committee.

RESPONDED

As an introduction, the question was posed as ³Are we as a country seeing Cannan in as far as our land claim is concerned"”.

In response, Mabuza asked to know if this reporter was posing the question in her personal or official capacity to which she responded by saying that she was doing so as a journalist from the Times of Eswatini.

The reporter explained that the reason Mabuza was asked the question was because he was among the members who had been with the committee for quite some time.

He said the challenge was that their term of office was coming to an end otherwise they would call the media and officially give a briefing.

In particular, he said calling the media for a briefing would possibly be clouded by assumptions that they were just praising themselves.

He then advised that the right person to comment was the prince, to which he was informed that the latter was the one who had recommended he respond to this publication.

Mabuza then advised that the procedure

was that he should get a mandate from the prince to speak to the media, something which had not happened.

He then shared contacts for Mabili and advised this reporter to call him.

He then emphasised that before publishing the story, this reporter should engage him so that he could do an assessment.

In vernacular he said, ³Before usibhale le-story, kufuna ugcine kimi”.

Later on the same day, Mabuza called this reporter and was given feedback that there was no response from Mabili, to which he asked to know if it was not possible to halt the story.

He was advised that the powers to halt a story rest with the editor of the publication, who he requested to call the following day.

Mabuza called again and gave feedback that he had engaged the Times of Eswatini Managing Editor, Martin Dlamini and that following the fruitful engagement, it made sense to respond.

Mabuza then requested that a questionnaire be sent to him, something which was done promptly.

On Saturday, -anuary 27, 2023, a follow-up call was made to Mabuza to which he requested to be allowed to check with the prince.

REVERTED

He reverted and said they were going to respond.

Mabuza called and gave the response by word of mouth (which were all recorded) after which he said he was done and advised that, unless there was a follow-up question which he referred to as ‘linkonyane’.

Two follow-up questions were asked, the first one being whether it still made sense to continue with the fight, to which he gave an example of the ANC era in South Africa.

The second question was on what Mabuza had to say regarding the fact that the committee is remunerated while in office and had to spend on trips attending meetings now and again something which cost the taxpayer.

He responded in vernacular saying “Lemphendvulo lengikunikete ekucaleni yenele. Lolosokungeta nyalo sengingakhandza sengingena etibilini talendzaba yalomsebenti.”

He then requested to see the final article in order to ascertain if his response was captured correctly.

This reporter then read out the notes of the response to which he made a correction, stating that instead of saying they were compiling a report the correct position was that they had in fact compiled it. (This recap has been recorded fully as well).