147 informal businesses benefit from Rec. Fund
MBABANE – At least 147 informal businesses have been reconstructed, courtesy of the Reconstruction Fund.
This was revealed by the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg in his written responses to his ministry’s portfolio committee questions.
The questions were posed to the minister last week when he had appeared for a debate of the ministry’s annual performance report. In his preamble, Rijkenberg stated that the Reconstruction Fund regulations had approved applications valued at E221.7 million, of which cash payments of E179.4 million were made and payments outstanding amounted to E 42.3 million.
Mpolonjeni Member of Parliament (MP) Jacob Siwela had asked the minister to explain how many informal businesses had benefitted from the fund.
In his responses, the minister said the formal businesses had been benefitting from the Reconstruction Fund. He said so far 147 informal businesses had been reconstructed.
He said these included, street vendors, salons, groceries, repair shops, butcheries, handicraft, clothing shops, pedlars, restaurants, spaza shops, general dealers, agricultural produce shops, Mobile Money, mini markets and cosmetics shops, to name a few. “These informal businesses are from all the four regions of the country,” he said.
The Reconstruction Fund worth E1 billion was launched by His Majesty King Mswati III in 2021, with the aim to mitigate the effects of the civil unrest on business.
Meanwhile, the MP (Siwela) also asked the minister to account for progress in the Nhlangano–Sicunusa Road. In his response, Rijkenberg said the expected completion date for the Nhlangano-Sicunusa Road was June 30, 2023 and progress achieved to date was at 72 per cent completion. The minister said the works commenced on the January 7, 2022 and were earmarked for completion no later than June 30, 2023, after the 18 months’ construction period.
Rijkenberg said work achieved so far was as follows:
Establishment of = 99% clearing and grubbing 98%;
Traffic accommodation = 99% Design work = 100%
Structures of Ndlotane Bridge = 67%, of Mkhondvo Bridge = 45% Overall layer works = 58% Drainage works = 75%
“Progress on the project has been hampered by the recently experienced above-normal rainfall which will result in time extension,” he said.
Reserves
Siwela also wanted to know the current standing of the country’s reserves and the minister response was that the country’s reserves were below the three months of import cover that would give comfort as a country, estimated at around 1.9 months of import cover. “However, this position is slightly better than it was around this time of the year last year, which was 1.8 months of import cover,” he said.
Kukhanyeni MP Malavi Sihlongonyane stated that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report showed that an estimated amount of E91 million was unaccounted for on a monthly basis in government. He then asked the minister of Finance to explain the leakage, and how it was occurring monthly. He also wanted to know what was being done to rectify these issues and if investigations had been instituted to ascertain those responsible.
Rijkenberg responded by stating that the ministry was very concerned about the highlighted figures of corruption; however, it was not part of their mandate to deal with corruption.
He said the ministry believed the PAC and the auditor general (AG) were mandated to ensure that PAC recommendations were implemented and adhered to by all controlling officers and ministries.
On the salary review negotiations, Sihlongonyane asked if it was not possible that these negotiations took place in a timely and transparent manner, not when strikes had been incited?
Rijkenberg responded to this by saying negotiations were meant to bring both the Public Sector Associations (PSAs) and Government Negotiation Team (GNT) on the same wavelength and agree on the issues on the table. He said as such, the salary review negotiations or any other workers associated negotiations were usually done in a transparent manner and the timeline was agreed to by both parties.
He said it was unfortunate that sometimes they ended up being delayed and politicised and ended up inciting strikes. He also wanted assurance that tertiary students would receive all their scholarship money in a timely manner, so as to avoid the strikes?
Responed the minister: “The budget I have presented for the financial year 2023/24 has been prepared in such a manner that no additional loans will be required, which usually accounts for the reason why the government sometimes encounters cash flow challenges. I believe that, as government, we will have less cash flow challenges in 2023/24 because we have tried to reduce the financing gap to almost close to zero and as such, we will be able to pay students scholarship allowances and tuition fees on time.”