Evidence shows Minister Neal registered for 2018 elections
MBABANE – Evidence has been shown that Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg registered for 2018 elections.
The Times SUNDAY is in possession of the minister’s voter’s card from the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), which validates the politician’s appointment as an MP and minister.
An online publication reported that the minister did not register for the elections in 2018. If he had not registered, it meant he would have been disqualified from being an MP and minister.
However, voter’s card bearing the name of the minister, ID and his chiefdom bear testimony that he was eligible for the appointment as a member of Parliament.
His appointment into the august House by His Majesty King Mswati III made him eligible for elevation to Cabinet, where the King appointed him as minister of Finance.
Sikelela Dlamini, the Secretary General of the Swaziland Multi-Stakeholder Forum was contacted by the online publication to comment on the matter.
Dlamini said the minister’s failure to register for the elections was an indication that the current system of governance was a huge joke.
“It is for these reasons that we are fighting for a democratic electoral system that would be transparent, free and fair,” Dlamini was quoted by the online publication.
Contacted for comment yesterday, the minister was very brief in saying that he did register for elections in 2018. He said he was appointed from the private sector to serve the country and the King.
Rijkenberg, from Bhunya, said he did not join politics to make money but to work for the country and King. Despite the heartbreaking, disappointing and defamatory statement made against him, the minister, a Christian and church leader, said his principle was to cast his burdens unto Jesus Christ.
The minister, currently serving his first term in Parliament and Cabinet, has registered for the 2023 General Elections.
Rijkenberg is one of the respected investors in Eswatini. He founded Montigny Investments Limited; an Eswatini-owned and operated diversified timber company.
It was founded in 1997. It is headquartered in Bhunya, where the entrepreneur registered for the elections in 2018.
The company he founded has grown from a small family business into the one of the largest private timber owner-operator in southern Africa, with a turnover in excess of E1 billion. Now, it services approximately 40 per cent of the regional wet-off-saw timber market, and have diverse timber-trading interests in South Africa, Eswatini, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, Zambia and Japan.
When Rijkenberg was appointed as MP and minister in 2018, he relinquished ownership of the company. He is neither a shareholder nor director.
Right to vote (Constitution)
84. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the people of Swaziland have a right to be heard through and represented by their own freely chosen representatives in the government of the country.
(2) Without derogating from the generality of the foregoing subsection, the women of Swaziland and other marginalised groups have a right to equitable representation in Parliament and other public structures.
Right to vote at elections
85. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, every Swazi or person ordinarily resident in Swaziland has a right to vote at any election of members of the House or members of the bucopho.
(2) A person is not entitled to vote in terms of subsection (1) if that person is for any reason unable to attend in person at the place and time prescribed for polling except as it may otherwise be prescribed.
(3) A person shall not vote at any election in terms of this section except at an inkhundla where that person is registered as a voter unless a special polling arrangement has been prescribed.
(4) A person is not entitled to stand as a candidate for election in terms of this Section or Section 86 unless that person is registered as a voter in that Inkhundla or region.