Should we also march? – Bennett on MOPADO
MANZINI – “Should we also march to Parliament to petition the Board of Trustees to demand a meeting with them in order to know our investments?”
This was a rhetorical question posed by businessman and former Senator Walter Bennett, during the meeting of former politicians in the country, known as Members of Parliament and Designated Officers (MOPADO) Pension Fund.
Members of MOPADO include former politicians who are current and ex-Members of Parliament (MPs), bucopho (constituency councillors) and tindvuna tetinkhundla (constituency headmen).
The fund is administered in a manner that government contributes 30 per cent while the politicians are still in office and they pay 15 per cent, which is deducted from their salaries.
Their meeting was held at the Manzini National Library, wherein they had sought the presence of the Board of Trustees of MOPADO to engage them on their investments.
This was a second attempt to have the presence of the Board of Trustees appraise the members of the association on the investments. The first meeting, with the same agenda, was held on August 18, 2022 and just like yesterday; the Board of Trustees of MOPADO was not present.
Investment
The investment was said to be E50 million ,which was invested in Eswatini Mobile, which was said to have been done against MOPADO’s investment managers, Imbewu YeSive Investment PTY LTD, which warned that investing that amount of money could result in a ‘significant loss’.
The other one is the E12 million purchase of land that used to belong to Eswatini Mobile founder and businessman, the late Victor Mfana Gamedze. The land was sold to MOPADO by Gamedze’s wife, Lungile Hotencia Gamedze, on August 23, 2018.
The land, which measures 1.3480 hectares, is situated in Ezulwini near Corner Plaza and Cash Build Hardware on the stretch where Lungile’s father, the late Prince Makhungu, had a homestead.
The princess sold the property to MOPADO in her capacity as a trustee of Madlenya Trust, which belonged to her late husband.
Bennett, just like the other members, expressed a desire to be furnished with the annual statements of the investments in order to ascertain the accumulated profits. His animated presentation, which was over 40 minutes, entertained the former politicians as their laughter reverberated frequently. He bemoaned that the Board of Trustees, which ought to be accountable to its members, was seemingly not interested.
“What is your life worth when you can’t sustain yourself and we can’t engage each other (Board of Trustees and members of the association), what are they scared of?” Bennett asked rhetorically. He said it could not be a civilised society if the Board of Trustees did not want to engage them. The former politician wondered how the Board of Trustees was not keen to meet them while some of its members were active in Parliament representing their constituents.
Rhetorically, he asked if they should also petition Parliament as well in order for the legislators to recall that they represented them in the Board of Trustees.
Bennett, just like the other speakers, supported that the executive of the association seeks a meeting with the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, to seek redress and establish what caused the Board of Trustees to shun the members when seeking transparency in the management of their investments.
Introduced
Also, former Minister of Public Service in the Ninth Parliament, Owen Nxumalo, said when MOPADO was introduced; they met the then Prime Minister (PM), Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini, to whom they explained the need for MOPADO.
He said with the land that was bought in Ezulwini, the first proposal was to build offices which the members did not approve of and it was necessary for them to meet Rijkenberg in order to seek his office to mediate between the Board of Trustees and the members of the association.
Secretary of the Association Saladin Magagula said they would be meeting the minister in the upcoming weeks, as the issues were pressing to them.
He said the disadvantage that the members raise was that the pension fund was no longer a lifetime thing as depending on the amount of money a former politician took upon exiting office.
It is worth noting that this publication previously reported on growing tensions surrounding an amount of E400 which would be received by members of the fund scheme.
Following the enactment of the new legislation, government had then decided to pay the tindvuna and bucopho members of the fund E400 monthly.
It has been alleged that after the review of the 55 years, government then paid members who were former and returning MPs 50 per cent of their money saved in the fund. However, tindvuna tetinkhundla and bucopho have allegedly not been given the 50 per cent.
Scrutiny
Meanwhile, the Principal Officer of MOPADO, Comfort Shabalala, in a previous interview, said there was nothing discreet about the investments when explaining that the financials of the former politicians under MOPADO were readily available for scrutiny.
He said his office held workshops countrywide, wherein it was communicated to the former legislators to furnish his office with their emails so that they could go through the financials at their leisure and or further seek an independent professional to assist in interpreting them.
Shabalala said during the workshops, which were held in the four regions of the country, the former politicians were given feedback on the investments and were also advised to seek clarity where they needed it.
The principal officer said regarding the issue of the Board of Trustees, he was not aware why they volunteered not to attend. However, Shabalala said there were issues regarding the association. He explained that MOPADO dealt with individual members in most instances; which was why they capacitated them with the workshops.