Matter handled by legal institutions - PS

MANZINI - The Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Agriculture, Sydney Simelane, says the matter is still being handled by legal institutions.

Simelane said this after the officer in question referred this publication to either the office of the director or PS. The officer said the rightful office to comment about the matter was that of the director of agriculture and the PS. He said this was because the matter was handled by the two offices.

On the other hand, the PS, who was responding to a questionnaire which was sent to him last Thursday, said; “This is a personal matter that we cannot discuss in public. The legal institutions are still handling it.”

The PS said this after he was asked if the ministry was content with the ACC’s conclusion that the matter could not be prosecuted. It was highlighted to the PS that this question arose from the fact that some of the affected clients claimed that they furnished the ACC with all the evidence it needed from them, including the alleged fake receipts with no government stamps, among other things. Also, the PS was asked what the ministry could say regarding claims that the report of the matter was biased and that it was allegedly influenced by some senior officials from the ministry.

Action

Furthermore, the PS was asked what action the ministry took after getting all the information about the case, including testimonies of the affected farmers, to address it internally. After his brief response, which he sent on Thursday afternoon, this publication raised a concern that the responses were incomplete as some of the questions, including claims of interference by senior officials from the ministry, among others, had not been responded to.

However, he did not respond. This publication made a follow on Friday via WhatsApp, but he did not respond. Also, this publication called him several times on Friday, but his cellphone rang unanswered for the better part of the day.