Africa-Press – Eswatini. Did the Ministry of Health Principal Secretary, Khanya Mabuza, get E2.8 million settlement package at NERCHA?
This was a question posed by Mbabane East Member of Parliament Welcome Dlamini to Prime Minister (PM) Russell Dlamini. The former National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA) Executive Director left the organisation over six months ago, to replace Dr Simon Zwane as the PS in the Ministry of Health.
Dlamini drew the attention of the PM and the parliamentarians to the Private and Cabinet Office annual performance report, which depicts that the excess over budget on salaries and allowances, which is eight per cent, was mainly because of the settlement package occasioned by the deployment of the NERCHA’s executive director to the Ministry of Health.
Budget
The report stipulates that the original budget for the 2023/24 financial year was E33 143 107 and the projected expenditure to March 2023/24 was E35 927 740. The difference in the original budget and the projected budget gives a sum of E2 784 633, which the legislator said represented the eight per cent excess over budget in salaries and allowances. He said the assumption was that NERCHA, as stipulated in the report, gave Mabuza that sum as his settlement package.
“The reason I’m asking this question is because we do not want a situation where Mabuza is fingered in dirty monies involving the irregularities on drugs now that he is at the ministry, when he starts splashing his settlement package on costly items of his choice,” the MP said.
The PM did not give an immediate response on the issue, save to say his office would provide written responses to Parliament by Monday. Most Members of Parliament had good things to say about the organisation, pointing out that it had met its mandate much to the satisfaction of emaSwati, particularly by reaching the 95-95-95 status on HIV.
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