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ZOMBODZE – Some MPs are accused of fencing and keeping bulldogs in their homes to keep community members away from them.
As such the residents of Zombodze have joined the call for passing of a law that would allow the electorate to recall Members of Parliament (MPs) who are underperforming.
One of the residents submitted that after being voted into Parliament, MPs never come back to take a mandate from them. He said if they happened to see them and talk about some of the challenges they were facing as a community, like bad roads, the parliamentarians would purportedly tell them that the issue had not been budgeted for at that moment.
Another resident, Bheki Mkhabela, said some MPs took mandates from the communities during the constituency council meeting, but when they raised such issues they were arrested. On the other hand, he said there were also those who, upon given mandates, did not take any action. “When will we have a law that will allow us (electorate) kutsi sibadvonse ngelijobo (to recall them)?” he asked.
Again, Lindiwe Maphalala said as the EBC educators were educating them about the upcoming national elections, she was bleeding inside. She said this was because once they had voted the candidates into Parliament, they built their homes, fenced them and kept bulldogs so that the electorate could not visit them. “We want to be given permission to recall them,” she said.
Meanwhile, the EBC educators said emaSwati should elect people based on their work in communities as well as individuals who exhibit good leadership skills, as opposed to those who ‘buy votes’ and make empty promises. They said this concern was not new to the commission and it had taken steps towards addressing it. They said the matter was taken to Parliament, where laws were passed, but it had not been finalised. In response to that, some of the residents said there was no way the parliamentarians could pass that law because they knew it would affect them. “They know that this law utabamuka sinkhwa emlonyeni,” said one of the residents in vernacular.