I will start working from where I left without delay — Minister Manqoba
RETURNING Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo says returning to the ministry means that he would go straight to work and continue where they left off.
Khumalo said the fact that they were returning to the ministry meant that they would just go back straight to work and continue to work where they had left off.
He stated that there were a lot of pipeline projects that were in the Covid-19 recovery plan, and strategic roadmap that they were going to work on.
He said all these projects will create the jobs that the ministry had been promising the nation.
“For instance, soon we will be officially opening the Gamula Factory Shell where there will be 1000 employment opportunities for emaSwati. Six months after that we will be opening the Johnson Factory in Jabula, Nhlangano where there would be 3000 jobs created,” he said.
The minister added that the development of the factory at Lubulini had already commenced and that there would be more projects of this nature that the ministry would commence.
He said some of them included a factory in Piggs Peak and a small factory at Sigwe in the Shiselweni region which they had already started planning with Sigwe MP David Ngcamphalala.
He also stated that other projects had already been allocated different lands that needed to be pushed such as Manzini Golf Course.
Khumalo further shared that as a ministry they would also put more focus on the implementation of the Citizen’s Economic Empowerment Bill which looks at how emaSwati are given incentives, protections, preferences, and priority for jobs done in the country to benefit emaSwati.
“We need to use this bill to protect emaSwati in businesses such as retail, transport, and other so that there are jobs that are known to be only done by emaSwati so that there are no foreigners where there should be liSwati,” he said.
Moreover, the minister stated that they were also going to work on ensuring the increase in the ease of doing business in the country.
He said they would continue to work on the state business relations program which had to begin to work.
“This program will help in assisting us to identify where businesses are disturbed or challenged. There will be a committee allocated that would work on those identified challenges,” he said.
He stated that what was more important to them as a ministry was to ensure that they created more jobs for the country.
Meanwhile, Minister of Finance Neal Rijkernberg said the Ministry of Finance was more of a supporting ministry rather than an implementing one and he hoped to do the right things to get Eswatini’s growth to double digits.
Rijkernberg stated that the cabinet would announce the plan of how they intend to do this after the retreat.
“All of our corruption challenges do need a very focused plan to eradicate it. Cabinet will also finalize this strategy for implementation,” he said.