Eswatini TV CEO to be named before Incwala – PS

MBABANE – As the nation craves to hear the announcement of a new chief executive officer (CEO) for Eswatini TV, to succeed the late Bongani Sigcokosiyancinca Dlamini, government promises that this will happen before Incwala.

Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Maxwell Masuku, in an interview, said they were doing their best to ensure the substantive head of the entity would be in office before the annual national prayer.

The sacred national prayer normally takes place in December.

“All is in place. All operations are ongoing such that I can assure you, by Incwala time, the qualifying candidate will have been unveiled,” said the PS.

Masuku further emphasised that he was happy with the recruitment exercise. However, he said it was not true, as most people thought, that he had the power to determine who should be hired for the post and who should not.

“It will never happen that a principal secretary may have the influence to get someone hired or not hired. Mine is to make a recommendation to the relevant authorities. They may take my recommendation or they may reject it,” he said.

The PS recently told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that it was important for the ICT Ministry to consider the House of Assembly’s recommendations as well, to balance up things.

Our sister publication, the Times SUNDAY, reported that despite the release of two interview results conducted by two consultants, in Kobla Quashie and Associates, as well as SAMKHO, the ICT Ministry reportedly went for Mlamuli Dlamini, a USA-based candidate, who did not sit for the interview.

The last CEO of the TV station (Sigcokosiyancinca) succumbed to an undisclosed illness late last year.

Concerns

Meanwhile, amid concerns made by members of Senate at the Broadcasting Bill workshop recently, government has assured that there will be no job losses as a result of the possible merger between EBIS radio and Eswatini TV. EBIS is the Eswatini Broadcasting and Information Services.

Masuku said government would do everything in its power to avoid such a scenario which, he said, would be unfortunate.

The members of Senate expressed concern about the retainment of employees’ jobs in the possible merger of the two entities during the Eswatini Broadcasting Bill 2019 Workshop for Senate, held at Hilton Garden Inn, Mbabane a week ago.

This was after Senator Vuka Moi Moi Masilela, had requested from the officials of the ICT Ministry that a situation like that which occurred as a result of the conversion of the Income Tax Department to Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) where many jobs were lost, should not be repeated in the event of the EBIS-Eswatini TV merger.

“No employee will lose their job. We will make it a point at the ministry that this does not happen,” the PS said in an interview. The merger of the two entities is one of the recommendations carried in the proposed Eswatini Broadcasting Bill 2019, that is yet to be tabled in the House of Assembly, before being endorsed as an Act of Parliament. The PS said the advantage of the Broadcasting Bill was that it opened up opportunities for people to apply for licences to run broadcasting stations.

“That means even if one may voluntarily elect to retire and take a package, one may later decide to seek employment elsewhere, since broadcasting stations would be many,” Masuku said.

Meanwhile, the PS conceded that he would stand by government’s commitment to seeing the dream of merging the two entities (EBIS and Eswatini TV) come true.

The PS said like it happened in other countries such as the neighbouring South Africa, Mozambique and Lesotho, radio and television stations operated as one entity, the same is possible even here in Eswatini.

He made an example of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), to substantiate his assertion.