MI1ISTE5 2) 38%/IC SE59ICE M$%8/$/$ M$SE.2

TIMES: What was the highlight of your term in office?

MaseNo: It’s the cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA). You know that civil servants had stayed for years without CoLA, owing to a number of reasons, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In the financial year 2022-2023, we were able to get approval for three per cent plus one per cent once-off payment. Then for the following financial year, 20232024, we are able to get four per cent CoLA across the board. By next year, we want to finalise the issue of a salary review, which is an ongoing project. We are currently waiting for the consultant to finalise it, but we are happy the project has already started. We were also happy that we were able to hire teachers in large numbers. In the 2023-2024 financial year, we were able to have a budget of about E65 million to hire teachers. We now want these teachers to be hired on a permanent basis, so they can be pensionable. We were able to hire a number of nurses too, to fill some of the gaps that existed over time. This was also the case with the security forces. In the process, we are recruiting for the Eswatini National Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services (ENFRES). We were also able to conduct management audits for all the ministries, wherein we wanted to establish for a fact if the government departments were well staffed or certain posts had become irrelevant. By this process, we were able to clean the establishment register of government.

TIMES: What was your worst downside? MaseNo: Almost everything went well as we were able to meet our targets. One exception was Swaziland Institute of Management and Public Administration (SIMPA), which still needs to be overhauled. We want it to be credible and be able to train government employees to an acceptable level. We were able to come up with a plan to make public service to be performance based, so that when we want to effect promotions, we look at the right qualification, competence and other essential features.

TIMES: In the event you do not return to politics, what will you focus on? MaseNo: I do not doubt that I will return to politics because the people of Maphalaleni have already made a declaration on that.

TIMES: If given another chance in Cabinet, what would you do better? MaseNo: I don’t want to say anything on that because I don’t want to be seen to be trying to influence my principals.