ECSPONENT INVESTORS REACT TO KING, VAN NIEKERK MEETING We believe King has good intentions - investors’ chair
MBABANE – Chairperson of the Ecsponent Investors Committee Norman Dlamini, says he believes that His Majesty King Mswati III has nothing but good intentions.
This follows the head of State’s meeting with South African businessman Dave Van Niekerk, who was taken to court by Eswatini Investments Group (ESWIG), demanding that he answers to the E340 million that was lost by Eswatini investors to Ecsponent.
ESWIG came into being in March 2020, with the sole mandate of recovering the E340 million that was lost by emaSwati who had invested in Ecsponent Eswatini.
Reacting to the article published in the Times SUNDAY, on the meeting between the King and the businessman, Dlamini said they were all astonished, particularly because their predicament had been in the news for a while. “However, we believe that our beloved King has good intentions. We don’t believe our King can neglect his own people. We hope and pray that his meeting with Dave was part of a strategic plan to get the (information) from the man himself. We are meeting this Friday and the issue forms part of our agenda,” he said. Dlamini is not the first one to react to the meeting after Worship Centre leader Apostle Justice Dlamini’s audio made the rounds on social media.
In the audio, the man of the cloth said he was expecting two things from the meeting, relating to the E340 million that was lost by emaSwati.
Visit
At the time, the King’s Office Director of Communications, Percy Simelane, said they were not privy to the visit by the businessman in question and wanted to believe it was private. Simelane said it should be the duty of the courts to find him guilty or not guilty.
“We doubt if he came here to appear before the King for his alleged deeds. Our experience is that the King has embraced an open-door policy, but he knows pretty well when not to commit. The proof of wisdom is the desire to listen to everyone, even suspects,” Simelane said. Meanwhile, a parent whose child is a beneficiary at Likhwane pleaded with the King to intervene on the matter during submissions at Sibaya last year.
Likhwane Beneficiary Fund was one of the investors in Ecsponent, where individuals, companies and organisations lost a total investment of E340 million, thus failing to deliver on its mandate. Likhwane lost on investment amounting to E63 million.
Bonsile Shongwe, who was given the chance to cough out anything that was bothering her, touched on the issue of Likhwane, stating that as widows, they were being sent from pillar to post by the authorities at the entity, without receiving the monthly payouts.
At the time, she said it had been five months since they last received a payout, and they were told that they should go to either Ecsponent or the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) to inquire about the payouts. Shongwe submitted that they did not know where to go and were relying on the head of State to intervene in the matter, particularly because this matter was not creating a good picture of the country and its leadership in the international community.
Losses
“Your Majesty, this issue is painting a bad picture about you in the international community, because it involves losses of money for widows and orphaned children. It is you who can find a lasting solution to this matter, because we have tried unsuccessfully to find answers. This matter is killing the image of the kingdom and it needs to be attended to urgently,” she said.
Shongwe further thanked the King for his passion to see the end to HIV in the country, stating that people living with the disease were as healthy as all others, all thanks to the King for his efforts on HIV/AIDS.