E15m for building tinkhundla centres
MBABANE – It is good news for areas that do not have tinkhundla centres. In the 2023-24 budget, E15 million was allocated for the construction of new tinkhundla centres. The Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, when presenting the budget said the government continued operationalising tinkhundla centres across the country and had launched some of the services at Lugongolweni, Simunye, Mhlambanyatsi and Lobamba during 2022-23.
He said the services provided in the centres included civil registration and vital statistics, immigration, master of the High Court, social welfare, revenue, library services and road transportation permits.
However, the structures that were burnt during the unrest are not included in the budget. Rijkenberg, when sought for comment, stated that the E15 million was strictly for new tinkhundla centres. However, he said the funding for the reconstruction of the destroyed centres would be taken from the Reconstruction Fund.
The minister said there was some money that remained in the fund but added that before it could be used, there should be a regulation in place so that the money could be used for the reconstruction of the structures that were burnt.
The Minister of Tinkhundla Administration and Development David ‘Cruiser’ Ngcamphalala expressed excitement about the E15 million for the construction of new tinkhundla centres. He said there were areas such as Methula where land had already been allocated.
He said a part of this money would be used for the construction of the new centres. He also mentioned Motshane as another area where the construction of a new centre was required.
MBABANE – The increased crime rate has exposed the inadequacy of the police. After the 2021 unrest, there had been an increase in crime particularly since police officers struggled to respond to some reports. In the months that followed until recently, police officers had become targeted by unknown people who shot dead at least 11 security personnel, including warders and also members of the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF).
During the press briefing before the official budget speech, the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, revealed that there was an increase of E100 million in the police budget. In 2022, the police were granted a budget of E1.07 billion. This means that this year, it was increased to about E1.17 billion.
Rijekenberg said the issues of security in the country were noted. He said at the moment in the country, law and order had shown cracks in it. “In any nation, law and order are the foundation of the nation,” said the minister. He said whatever else you could do, without security, meant nothing. The minister said even good education meant nothing if there was no law and order. He said government needed to do whatever it could to support the police. “Yes, we have provided more for security forces, especially for the police,” said the minister. In his budget speech, Rijkenberg said Eswatini had a renowned reputation for peace and stability, but the security forces were not sufficiently equipped to adequately respond to the coordinated and widespread looting, rioting, arson and assassinations that the country had witnessed in the past two years. “His Majesty reminded us again that we can only succeed as a nation if the development aspirations were firmly grounded in peace,