New PM’s opportunity to test his skills – Sthofeni
MBABANE - Respected businessman and financial adviser Sthofeni Ginindza has likened the task facing new Prime Minister Cleopas Dlamini to that of taking over a company that is struggling.
He said he had learnt with time that when it came to such positions, one cannot afford to work in isolation but needed to engage all stakeholders ‘ because you can’t do it on your own’.
The African Alliance partner said the PM needed to appreciate such engagement.
“Also, we feel for him because he has come at a time that has many challenges; but a time like this is where champions a born because you have an opportunity to test your skills. If you look at the period in which former Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo was appointed, it had many challenges, but he had made some good strides before COVID- 19 came in,” Ginindza said.
He continued: “It is like when you join a company that is struggling, we consider you to be able when you manage to take that company out of that position and get it to a position of profitability. We wish the new PM the best as he gets to work.”
Ginindza also took a bit of time to reflect on the Reconstruction Fund that was announced by His Majesty the King during Sibaya and an amount of E500 million has already been pledged by government through the King.
The Fund is to assist in the rebuilding of businesses and structures that were destroyed during the recent riots that emanated from calls for political reforms.
Ginindza said E500 million was a lot of money and was hoping that other stakeholders, including international particulars, would also come on board.
“The concept is fantastic as it has been done in other countries. If you go back to how the World Bank was born after the Second World War; the World Bank was also known as the Reconstruction Bank,” he said.
He, however, warned that government needed to come up with stringent guidelines to guard against individuals who would want to abuse the Fund.
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“Some, after having heard the king announcing the Fund, will start exploring ways of how to exploit it. Therefore, there should be safety nets,” Ginindza said.
He said as a businessman he had also lost a lot because some of his businesses were looted and burnt and the sad thing was that such damage could not be rebuilt overnight. “But to be fair, there are other industries that have been worse than mine. Some sectors, by nature, are hard to reconstruct. The tougher industries are not reconstructed overnight,” he said.
Ginindza said businesspeople such as Lincoln Motsa, the owner of OK Foods, had really lost out and one needed to be in his ( Motsa’s) shoes to comment on such loss.
Weighing in on the King’s Sibaya speech, Ginindza said overall, what the King said was spot on.
“People were expecting him to be emotional but he gave a non- emotional speech, also covering all aspects. The King reemphasized the existence of the Constitution; spoke about Troika and explaining to the Nation how SADC functions, which I think was beneficial to a lot of people as clarity was made on factfinding mission and mediation. The speech also demonstrated how in two days one can destroy what has taken years to build,” he said.
By not talking about the election of PM, which is what is being demanded by some MPs, and the unbanning of political parties, Ginindza said his thinking was that the king was intentional in doing so because he has advisory councils that looked into such issues.
“We do not expect the King to go into personal issues but he leaves the advisory councils to go and consult the people and return to him to give a report. I still do believe there will be a team that will be commissioned to go and gather people’s views,” he said.
He added that if one considered the speech, the King mentioned that there were programmes that should have been rolled out if it was not for the COVID- 19 pandemic; ‘ so I think there will be a team that will go out to meet with the public’.