King’s Office Chief frustrating World Bank-funded women’s project
By Vuyisile Hlatshwayo
Finding refuge from the sweltering heat under the canopy of an MTN umbrella alongside the Big Bend-Lavumisa Border Gate-bound MR8 Highway, Tfolakele Dlakubi*, a street vendor, looked longingly towards the locked World Bank-funded Market Shelter built near Siphofaneni Bus Terminus to accommodate the weather-beaten women vendors. The 37-year-old and tens of hustling street vendors have borne the brunt of the severe climate change-induced weather events for years. This is despite the World Bank financing the construction of the market building at the Siphofaneni commercial node under Siphofaneni Inkhundla to the tune of E517 407.48 ($28 360.77). A total sum of E446 971.94 ($24 500.07) was expended on market stalls to boost economic growth and reduce poverty by creating business opportunities. According to the World Bank Report, this was a sub-project of the Local Government Project (SLGP) (P095232) worth $26.9 million, equivalent to E490 656 000 at the time of the investigation. She is envious of the beneficiaries occupying six World Bank-funded market shelters operating entirely in the other Tinkhundla Centres in the Hhohho, Lubombo, Manzini and Shiselweni Regions.
Speaking in a subdued voice in fear of victimisation, Dlakubi revealed to the Inhlase Centre for Investigative Journalism that the market building was locked by Madlenya Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze, whose chieftaincy jurisdiction extends to the World Bank-financed Siphofaneni Market Shelter and Siphofaneni Inkhundla, the project beneficiary. Additionally, the razor-wire is put on the wall to prevent any unauthorised occupation by the targeted beneficiaries. Chief Mgwagwa wields immense political influence in the royal court as the incumbent Chief Officer (CO) in the King’s Office. He is also a statesman, having served as acting prime minister before PM Russell Mmiso Dlamini took over the reins and as minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation.
Section 233 of the eSwatini Constitution expressly states that a chief must not practice any form of discrimination. Sub-section (9) provides that in exercising functions and duties, a chief enforces customs, traditions, practices, or usages that are just and not discriminatory. The telling tale of a chief who deprives desperate women vendors of market access contravenes this provision of the Constitution. Significantly, it is a stark reminder of the unrestrained political power of royal courtiers.
However, Dlakubi was in the dark about the powerful chief’s reasons for locking them out of the market building once the market construction was over. She then directed Inhlase to a group of street vendors elected into the Siphofaneni Market Vendors Committee, which was responsible for handling vendor-related matters. She assured Inhlase that they were better placed to answer the project-related queries.
Little did she know that she was sending Inhlase on a wild goose chase as the committee withheld information to protect the chief’s name at the expense of the vendors from the four neighbouring chiefdoms – Madlenya, Ka-Mkhweli, Hlutse and Vikizijula. Instead, the outspoken chairperson, who did not want to be named, deliberately dodged Inhlase’s questions. Instead, she complained about the media undermining the chief’s authority. She said it’s his prerogative to let the vendors use the market but not the other way around. She then threatened this reporter, reminding him of how the vendors manhandled an Eswatini Observer reporter covering the last Siphofaneni Inkhundla parliamentary elections.
Other interviewed vendors were at odds with the way the committee was defending Chief Mgwagwa’s stance aimed at frustrating their tireless efforts to free themselves from the systematic clutches of patriarchy by gaining financial independence. They lashed out at him for shooting down the World Bank-financed women’s economic empowerment project. Yet the objective of the market shelters was to promote business development, which contributes to opportunities for local economic development, according to information gleaned from the World Bank Report 2019. They failed to accept that the king’s man, who always accompanied the king in his trips abroad with a begging bowl, dared to halt a World Bank-sponsored economic development initiative.
Inhlase contacted Oarabile Minky Moilwa, the Gaborone-based World Bank Eastern and Southern Africa external affairs associate, to gather more information on the locked World Bank-funded Siphofaneni Market Shelter. She confirmed that on January 20, 2011, the World Bank approved a loan of $26.9 million to eSwatini for the Local Government Project (SLGP) (P095232) to develop institutionally strengthened rural local governments (Tinkhundla) and urban local government.
“The project jointly implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development became effective on 12th March 2012 and closed on 30th June 2019. The construction of Siphofaneni Market Shelters was part of the Tinkhundla sub-projects. The allocation for the construction of Market Shelters at Siphofaneni was SZL 517 407.48, out of which SZL446,971.94 was expended on the market stalls in Siphofaneni,” she told Inhlase.
Moilwa explained that the World Bank only supports the eSwatini government through various initiatives, including financing, policy guidance, and technical assistance. However, she pointed out that project implementation rests with the government, ensuring sustainable use. She then directed Inhlase to the Ministries of Finance, Economic Planning and Development, Housing and Urban Development and Tinkhundla Administration and Development to source information on the project status. As this was financed with a World Bank loan, Inhlase sent questions to the Principal Secretaries, Vusi Dlamini in the Ministry of Finance and Thabsile Mlangeni in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, on 5 November 2024. They neither acknowledged receipt nor responded.
Inhlase then approached Lubombo Regional Administrator (RA), Themba Msibi in the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development, whose line ministry’s core mandate is to support the country’s efforts to reduce poverty and inequality. Through Tinkhundla, it promotes shared prosperity. His responsibility is to decentralise service delivery to the chiefdoms. He works closely with the chiefs in the Lubombo Region, including Chief Mgwagwa, to promote local government and rural development initiatives. He corroborated Dlakubi’s story about how the chief had been frustrating the Siphofaneni Market Shelters project, which was ready for use by the street vendors in 2019.
“Imagine the street vendors still peddling their wares in the open in harsh weather conditions. Yet our development partner, the World Bank, had built them a state-of-the-art market now inaccessible to them. This does not paint a good picture of us as a developing nation that goes around with a begging bowl in hand. This is painful and embarrassing, to say the least,” Msibi lamented.
The RA added that his office tried to resolve this issue by engaging the relevant traditional structures. He pointed out that he had already asked for intervention from the Ludzidzini Council, a traditional body set up by the king to resolve chieftaincy issues, including chieftaincy disputes. However, he said his line ministry had to tread carefully because it works closely with the chiefs and needs their buy-in to drive the government’s decentralisation policy programme in Tinkhundla.
Inhlase had been trying to reach out to Chief Mgwagwa since late October 2024 but in vain. It once visited the King’s Office, where an interview appointment was arranged with his secretary. This was followed by a texted questionnaire, which was neither acknowledged nor replied to. He did not take the follow-up calls. Inhlase also approached Percy Simelane, the King’s Press Secretary, to intervene, and he too tried but to no avail.
Zakithi Sibandze, who is the Swaziland Rural Women’s Assembly (SRWA) coordinator, blasted the chief for perpetuating the subjugation of women under patriarchy. SRWA promotes a just society with respect for women and girls’ rights, allowing free democratic participation, empowerment and holistic development of women. She described his shutdown of the Siphofaneni Market built for the women vendors as a way of ensuring women remain trapped in the poverty cycle. She doubted his understanding of eSwatini’s obligation to align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) prioritising ending poverty and hunger and promoting equality and inclusivity.
“As a nation, we want to end poverty and align ourselves with the SDGs. But how can we end poverty if women are denied economic opportunities by chiefs who want to continue enjoying the trappings of patriarchy. I think our chiefs need to be educated about the importance of community development. As much as these women operate in an informal sector, they generate the much-needed income to provide for their families and become financially secure,” she said.
Sibandze called on chiefs to promote women’s economic empowerment as a preventative measure against gender-based violence (GBV). Most of the GBV cases, she argued, emanate from the lack of financial independence of women. She pointed out that one of the solutions to GBV is ensuring that women are financially secure and independent. She pleaded with Chief Mgwagwa to stop frustrating emaSwati economic development initiatives made possible by diminishing donor assistance. She cautioned that no development partner or donor can tolerate financial wastage on white elephant projects. She appealed to the chief for a change of heart lest the donors and development partners discontinue funding the country’s deserving causes. She called on the government to educate the chiefs about development in a highly unequal society.
Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC) president, Sibongile Mazibuko, blamed poor governance for the women vendors’ denied access to the World Bank-financed Siphofaneni Market Shelter. She lamented that despite the adoption of the Constitution enshrined with the Bill of Rights, the continued enforcement of King Sobhuza’s 1973 Proclamation is against the spirit of the Bill of Rights in the 20-year-old constitutional dispensation. While enjoying the royal trappings, as a footstool of the monarch, Chief Mgwagwa saw nothing wrong in locking out the women vendors out of the market.
“This chief is exercising powers from the 1973 Decree entrenched by the Constitution of 2005. He sees nothing wrong with locking the street vendors out, and he can go on to lock them out of their houses. He can also issue instructions to evict and demolish their homesteads in the king’s name. As the king’s powers devolved to the chiefs, we do not know what order was given to him from above. Why is everybody silent when the locked market is visible to everyone driving past Siphofaneni?” asked Mazibuko.
Scholars of ethical leadership such as Deanne Den Hartog and Rabindra Nath Kanungo emphasise that moral beliefs and caring values drive ethical leaders, and they aim for their actions and judgments to benefit followers, organisations and society. This includes refraining from actions which may harm others. These ethical behaviour attributes are put to acid test by the case of the locked World Bank-funded Market Shelter in Siphofaneni.
The begging question is, are traditional leaders perpetuating the subjugation of women under patriarchy, undermining the gender equality policy direction of the government with impunity?
*Not her real name.
