Water, power allowances for emabandla
MBABANE – Members of salaried emabandla will each get about E1 500 monthly allocation for household utilities, which is usually water and electricity.
This is according to an Exraordinary Government Gazette published last week, titled ‘The Prescription of Statutory Salaries and Allowances of Emabandla, Commissions and Boards Notice of 2004’. The legal notice was issued by Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg.
The members were all allocated at least three per cent of their basic salaries to keep their lights on and water taps running in their households.
The taxpayer will part with over E1.5 million every year for this line item, according to calculations by this newspaper. The amount offered for utilities differs according to the salary. Chairpersons will get more than the rest of the membership.
An example is that Liqoqo chairperson will get E26 063 for utilities, while ordinary members will be entitled to E18 398 per annum.
The chairperson of Liqoqo will also be entitled to a housekeeper, gardener and driver. In the departing committees, the chairperson was only allocated a chauffer, without a gardener and housekeeper.
The chairperson was also previously not allocated any security budget in the 2023 gazette. However, this time around, the chairperson of Liqoqo will be entitled to a 24-hour security service.
Government will have to engage a security firm to provide the necessary 24-hour security for the chairpersons of Liqoqo, Elections and Boundaries Commission, as well as the Ludzidzini Committee.
Gratutity
Meanwhile, members of the Border Restoration Committee (BRC) will finally get gratuity of E613 258 each at the end of their five-year term in office, after years of persuasion.
The committee will also be incorporated into the Members of Parliament and Designated Officers (MOPADO) Bearers Pension Fund.
Being a member of MOPADO implies that government will inject 30 per cent of the member’s salary, which is E15 332 monthly. The member will contribute 15 per cent of their salary, which amounts to E7 666 monthly.
Though it could not be ascertained if the current committee, whose fiveyear term comes to an end this month, will benefit from the gratuity, sources said they should not expect the payment of gratuity.
The source said: “They obviously cannot expect pension because they did not contribute to it over the fiveyear period.”
The committee has neither been paid a gratuity nor a pension ever since it was established in 1996. It recently came under the spotlight when some people felt its mandate was a daunting task, which would be almost impossible to achieve.
In 2019, the Royal Commission on Conditions of Service recommended that the BRC be included in the MOPADO.
However, the report compiled by the Royal Commission was later suspended on the basis that it could not be introduced midstream, after the committee had already been remunerated with an old circular.
The gazette, which to a large extent, brings into effect the contents of the Royal Commission Report also raises the salaries of the committee and other emabandla.
Contributiom
Reads the notice: “The government shall pay a monthly contribution of 30 per cent of the basic salary to the Members of Parliament and Designated Officers Bearers Pension Fund Scheme for all the salaried office bearers. A pension contribution equal to 15 per cent of the basic salary of an office bearer of a salaried libandla, statutory Board or commission shall be deducted monthly and remitted to the MOPADO.”
The MOPADO Bearers Pension Fund is a defined contribution pension fund limiting the participants’ benefits to their contributions in terms of the Retirement Funds Act.
In the event that a member of the BRC or any other salaried libandla fails to serve the full five-year term of office, the ex gratia payment shall be pro-rated, based on the actual period served.
“An office bearer of a salaried libandla, statutory Board or commission eligible for the payment of the ex-gratia, shall forfeit the ex-gratia, if the office bearer has been dismissed due to misconduct or incompetence,” the legal notice reads.
Secretary of the Border Restoration Committee Bheka Mabuza said he had not been made aware of the new gazette. “All I can say at the moment is Bayethe,” he said.
His Majesty King Mswati III is expected to appoint members of the new term of office for emabandla this month or the next.
A source who did not want to be named, said the gazette was issued to herald the appointment. “It makes a lot of sense to issue the gazette ahead of the appointments, so that the new emabandla members may be engaged under the new terms of service,” the source said.
Chairperson of the Royal Board of Trustees Mvuselelo Fakudze asked not to comment on the issue, saying the minister of Finance was the appropriate office for all comments.
Rijkenberg directed questions to the King’s Office and Chief Officer, Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze, said the Royal Board of Trustees was best positioned to respond to such issues.