Chieftancy dispute stalls development of Ntshanini High

LOBAMBA – A chieftancy dispute has stalled the development of Ntshanini High School as the land it is constructed on is being contested.

In fact, so serious is the dispute that the school even has two names as it is also called Mhawu High School, after being named by the different chiefs.

This was revealed yesterday during the appearance of the Ntshanini/Mhawu High School before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to respond to queries raised by the Auditor General (AG), Timothy Matsebula, in the Public Schools Audit Report for the financial year ended December 31, 2018.

The current Head teacher, Clement Simelane, appeared alongside his predecessor, Samuel Dlamini, to account on how schools funds were utilised.

The issue of the land dispute first arose when the Chairperson of the PAC, Gege MP Musa Kunene, asked why the school had paid the Evangelical Church about E1 050.

The head teachers revealed that this was for the use of the church building as the school did not have a hall and they used it to hold meetings and also for pupils to sit for examinations. It was stated that the church had stated that the money would be used for electricity units for the whole year.

The PAC was informed that the school had tried to construct a hall near the institution and that the groundwork had started, but because of the boundary dispute between three or four chiefs, the construction was stopped.

“Because we so much want the hall, we decided to build it inside the school’s structures, however, upon proper inspection of the plot which had been identified, it was discovered that there were electricity cables under it,” said Simelane.

Construction

He said they had written to the Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) and the cables were removed sometime last year. Simelane said, however, when construction was expected to begin, COVID19 had hit and, therefore, the project was stalled to date.

On another note, the PAC learned that teachers at the school owed about E106 320 in rental arrears. It was reported that the about 33 teachers had refused to pay the rent because of the dilapidated state of the houses.

The PAC heard that the houses had been condemned by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport about 20 years ago in 1991.

As a result, the teachers were advised not to pay rent until the houses were fixed and a memorandum from the Ministry of Education and Training was attached stating that the rental deductions would be suspended until the rehabilitation exercise was completed.

It was further stated that another challenge was that it was unclear whether the land where the houses were belonged to the church or the boundary which was under dispute.

It was revealed that this was frustrating as the ministry was seemingly not even aware who was supposed to build the houses between Micro Project Unit, the Public Works Ministry or the church and the dispute made it worse.

The PAC said the Education and Training Ministry needed to go back to the drawing board and draw up a clear policy on how the houses were allocated.

The PAC said teachers were professionals, but the state of their living conditions was apalling.