Africa-Press – Eswatini. There is hope for the unemployed Emaswati after Minister of National Defence and Security Thuli Dladla hinted at the possibility of undertaking another recruitment exercise next year.
This could come with a provision that the budget was appropriated by Parliament and funds were available.
The minister said they were still thin on the ground and critical security operations could be compromised.
Members of Parliament were, however, focused on the ongoing recruitment by the defence insisting that it should be tinkhundla based. They also raised concerns that the process could be manipulated. This was revealed during the debate of the ministry’s first quarter performance report for the current financial year.
Dladla said they were considering undertaking another recruitment exercise next year but it all depended on whether their request for a waiver was accepted by Cabinet and the budget was approved by Parliament.
She said this would also go a long way towards addressing the prevalent youth unemployment in the country while providing the army with the personnel they needed.
“As much as we are recruiting now, we are still thin on the ground and we are considering recruiting more personnel next year,” she said.
Hope
The intention would signify a glimmer of hope to the unemployed youth in the country, some of whom have narrowly missed out in the ongoing recruitment exercise.
This would be further boosted by the submissions made by members of Parliament who applauded the preference of recruiting per inkhundla by the army.
The legislators have also urged the ministry to return to the very same tinkhundla centres to replace candidates that fell off during the recruitment.
The first portfolio committee member who raised a concern about the ongoing recruitment was Manzini North MP Macford Sibandze.
He requested the minister to inform the committee of how many new recruits would enlist with the army.
“According to my calculations, there are about 354 new recruits to be enlisted based on the six per inkhundla. Will that be the case or not,” he enquired.
He further enquired if the recruitment would remain tinkhundla based in the sense that if any of the selected six per inkhundla was disqualified along the process, would the defence return back to the same constituency to search for replacements.
Motshane MP Robert Magongo said the ministry should ensure that all the chosen candidates were indeed form the respective constituencies.
“You need to verify this because in my constituency there are concerns that some of the candidates were not from the constituency,” he said.
His submission was echoed by Manzini South MP Thandi Nxumalo who concurred that the youth unemployment rate was too high and needed to be addressed holistically.
Hhukwini MP Nkhanyeti Ngwenya commended the method used by the army of recruiting an equal number of candidates per constituency.
He said this would ensure equal representation in the army and urged the other security forces to adopt a similar method when recruiting.
Nhlambeni MP Manzi Zwane and Maseyisini MP Mduduzi ‘Small Joe’ Dlamini commended the transparency of the ongoing recruitment, which was undertaken in full view of the public.
They also agreed that this would curb youth unemployment.
Zwane, however, said there was a concern that there were people who wanted to manipulate the system by travelling to other constituencies after they failed to qualify in their own.
He said the recruitment should have begun with the registration of all aspiring recruits per constituency so that the contestants would only be allowed to compete in their own constituency to avoid any manipulation of the system.
Minister Dladla welcomed the suggestions and advises from the committee members on the concerns to eliminate the manipulation of the system.
She said moving forward, they would take them on board to ensure the exercise was as transparent as possible.
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