E133m for emabandla allowances
Land Management, Mines and Minerals Boards included
MBABANE – About E133 million will be spent to cater for different al lowances for members of traditional advisory councils and commissions (emabandla) during their five year term in office.
The figure, which is exactly E133 054 633.40, is supported by the dif ferent allowances allocated as per the Prescription of Statutory Salaries and Allowances of Emabandla, Commis sions and Boards Notice 2024, which was issued by the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg.
The notice provides that the mem bers of 10 councils are entitled to al lowances for entertainment, housing, communication and responsibility, among others.
A bigger chunk of money will cover allowances for Liqoqo and this is because it has many members.
Calculations reflect that the chair person of Liqoqo is entitled to a housing allowance of E18 099.66 and about E7 239.83 for entertainment.
The chairperson is also entitled to a communication allowance of E5 000.
In total, the Liqoqo chairperson will cost the taxpayer about E30 339.49 per month on allowances.
ENTITLED
The notice also provides a provision for a secretary of Liqoqo and it re flects that the individual is entitled to E5 110.50 as housing allowance and E18 958.33 as commuted allowance.
The secretary is also entitled to about E1 000 as communication allowance and E5 110.50 as respon sibility allowance.
For members, each one is entitled to E5 110.50 as housing allowance and E18 958.33 as commuted allowance.
This means that the total amount that will be paid for allowances per month for each Liqoqo members stands at E25 068.83.
With the secretary excluded, the number of members stands at 21 and this means that per month, about E526 445.43 will be needed to cater for their allowances.
The second libandla to receive a bigger chunk in terms of allowances is the Ludzidzini Council, by virtue of the fact that it also has a high number of members.
Its chairperson will be entitled to allowances similar to those of the one for Liqoqo.
The Border Restoration Committee, which has 12 members, a chairperson and secretary, will take up E361 344.
On the other hand, the Royal Board of Trustees, which has about sev en members, will take about E175 481.83 to cater for allowances.
In the same vein, the Minerals Man agement Board, Civil Service Com mission (CSC) and Teaching Service Commission (TSC), who all have chairpersons and about four members, will cost the taxpayer E118 051.48 each per month in allowances.
For the Citizenship Board and Land Management Board, about E156 533.15 will be spent to cater for al lowances for their members.
The Elections and Boundaries Com mission (EBC), which has a chairper son, deputy and three members, will take about E121 322.14.
ALLOWANCES
The allowances have been struc tured in such a way that chairpersons of the councils receive more money for housing, entertainment and com munication.
However, they do not get commuted car allowance as they are entitled to a government vehicle.
Meanwhile, the notice also provides a prescrip tion for sitting allow ances.
It is stated that the num ber of sittings for a non salaried libandla or commission shall be limited to four per month.
It is also mentioned that the attend ance of a national event by members of a libandla shall not constitute a sitting.Also mentioned in the notice is that there are emabandla which are entitled to what is known as secretar ial support.
“A member of Liqoqo, Ludzidzini Council and Border Restoration Committees who has been assigned to provide secretarial support shall earn a member’s basic salary plus a responsibility allowance of 10 per cent,” the notice states.
It is highlighted that the EBC, Minerals Management Board, Land Management Board, Judicial Service Commission, Citizenship Board and the Board of the Royal Trustees shall continue to receive secretarial support from the King’s Office or the relevant line ministry, or use the secretarial staff assigned, specifically to service the commission.
Our publication reported last week that there are high expectations that His Majesty King Mswati III will an nounce the appointment of members of different traditional advisory coun cils and commissions (emabandla).
The expectations are motivated by the fact that it was around this time five years ago that new appointments were announced.
APPOINTED
Already, there are debates in various quarters on individuals who are likely to be appointed. There are also feelings that a high percentage of the current members stand a chance of being re appointed and that new ones will be added to fill up positions left vacant after members were assigned new duties. It should be noted that some of the com missions have vacant posts following that members have been appointed to Parlia ment, while others passed away. It was on April
MBABANE – Despite strong objection from Members of the 11th Parliament, mem bers of the Land Management, Mines and Minerals Boards have been included in the salaries to be paid to various Boards and advisory councils (emabandla).
MPs of the 11th Parliament were now and again vocal about the issue as they argued that the salaries given to the members of the two Boards were unlawful.
The former MPs argued that the Constitution was being breached as 11, 2019, five months after Cabinet had been appointed, that the an nouncement for members of emabandla was made. The announcement was made by Attorney General (AG) Sifiso Mashampu Khumalo at the Lozitha Royal Palace.
Having been appointed in April 2019 and with the term of office for the mem bers of the various councils expected to be five years, the expectation is that the end of their time could be announced within the next coming days.
It must be said, however, that there is no specific law that stipulates a date on which the King must appoint or dissolve emabandla but it has been a tradition over the past years that a new Parliament worked with newly ap it stipulated that the members of the two Boards should get allowances and not monthly salaries.
So serious were the former MPs that they even suggested that if the Ministry of Finance issued a gazette saying that the members should earn a salary, then the Constitution needed to be amended.
On countless occasions, govern ment had to explain that an instru ment was officially issued by the Finance Ministry to provide for the payment of salaries of the members of the two Boards. pointed members of the traditional councils and committees (emabandla ekweluleka).
Already, a new Parliament has been in office for about five months follow ing the general elections which were completed in September last year.
EXPECTATIONS
Following the elections and appoint ments of several individuals into differ ent political positions, many had high expectations that the advisory councils and committees would follow suit before the Incwala. However, by De cember last year, the outgoing members were still in office. Some of the outgo ing members include former Deputy Prime Minister Paul Dlamini who is the current Chairperson of Liqoqo.