Africa-Press – Eswatini. It gets sour by the day!
When the Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE) announced that members of the Swaziland Women Economic Empowerment Trust (SWEET) would finally receive their monies, many of them celebrated. No one could blame them, following that they might have lost hope when it became evident that the hundreds of Emalangeni they invested into the scheme had been misappropriated, leading to its eventual liquidation.
However, the investors’ joy has been short-lived, after they received news that they will receive only what they invested in the scheme and no interest or anything more than that. In the past few days, the CBE, under the leadership of Governor Dr Phil Mnisi, has been running a notice informing the investors that a distribution of invested funds will be paid in the first quarter of the current year, ending March 31, 2024.Instead of being excited, some of the members are demanding answers why they will receive only what they invested.
Calculations
One of the investors who called this publication said they came from the rural areas and were not educated enough to understand how the calculations were done. “Even though I do not know much, I believe that since I was encouraged to put in E500 to buy shares that would generate E5 000, I should be getting more money. I joined in 2012 so my investment should have generated interest by now,” the woman said.
She mentioned that ever since the notice was publicised, she had been engaging some of the CBE top management to get answers regarding the interest but has not been given a satisfactory response. Another investor said when she enquired about the interest she was advised to listen to a programme on the Eswatini Information and Broadcasting Services (EBIS), where everything was to be properly explained. “I listened to the programme and there was no mention of where the interests had gone. Instead they gave feedback that they will make an announcement on how members from each of the regions will be engaged,” she said.
She mentioned that she had expected to get at least E30 000 but now that the CBE has said that members will get only what they invested, it meant that she will take home a meager E1000. “This is painful because Her Majesty, The Indlovukazi formed this scheme to empower us women, so that we could have better lives. I had planned to buy fertiliser and food with the money,” she said. Another investor complained that the CBE had not called them to a meeting where the distribution exercise would have been explained.
“I expected that we will be invited to the Mavuso Trade and Exhibition Centre, where they will explain everything. Some of us are old and we have no access to the radio and newspapers,” she claimed.
Feedback
For almost the whole week, the investors made it a point that they called this publication for feedback, having been assured by this reporter that the CBE was being engaged to provide clarity. Most of them said they chose to contact this publication, as the group leaders in the communities who were supposed to provide answers were seemingly having challenges. Meanwhile, the SWEET fund is said to have started off with E112 000 and quickly grew to E500 000 and within three years had accumulated savings worth approximately E7 million. Women, whether in their individual capacities or through their cooperative trusts or associations were invited to open accounts with the Swaziland Building Society.
Money deposited in these accounts was subsequently transferred to SWEET. The hundreds of women were made to believe that this was a savings scheme that would generate profitable interests that were almost above market value and inflation. Signs that frustration had crept in on the members started showing in 2021, when they launched an online petition and demanded that the people responsible for taking their monies should be taken to task, and their monies be returned.
Following the online petition by SWEET members, demanding to get back money they paid through savings and buying shares, the CBE announced that it was conducting investigations into the fund. At the time, the name of the then Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Thuli Dladla was drawn into the controversy.
This was after Dladla, who is now the Deputy Prime Minister, acknowledged that she was aware of the history of the investment. Dladla explained that there was a delay in paperwork by Farmers Bank, which was the mother body of the company (SWEET), and that there was about E27 million at Swaziland Building Society which had the members’ names.
Matter
She said the CBE had records of the members who had joined the fund and was currently investigating the matter. Dladla assured members who invested that they would get their dues once the Central Bank had concluded the investigations. Around the same time, the then CBE Governor Majozi Sithole released a press statement where he said the bank, jointly with the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) had established a joint team to look into the matter. Sithole highlighted that these were launched to look into the affairs of SWEET Trust Fund and its affiliates.
This was after the regulatory authorities received complaints from some members of SWEET that the offices in Manzini had been closed without due notice to members.In April 2022, some of the SWEET members were quoted saying they smelt a rat, in terms of getting answers and justice. This was four months after they had been told that there were criminal activities which took place in the organisation and further assured that the police would be tasked with bringing the culprits to book, but nothing fruitful had happened.
In terms of background, the SWEET Microfinance (PTY) LTD is an organisation which was established in April 2015 and registered under certificate of incorporation No. 2235/2014. It is a company under SWEET and its patron was Her Majesty the Queen Mother.
Empowerment
It was established as one of the national economic empowerment initiatives that emanated from the Eswatini Women’s Decade Plan of Action of 2010.
Members were saving at least E100 per month and were supposed to borrow money based on their savings. They were also promised that they would get dividends annually. However, early in 2019, some felt that there was nothing sweet with the organisation, as they did not get anything from it. As such, some of the aggrieved members flocked the organisation’s offices in Manzini, where they demanded their monies they had invested over the past years – since 2011.
In 2020, some members of SWEET from Mkhiweni Constituency approached their then Member of Parliament (MP) Michael Masuku, who tried to move a motion in Parliament. It is said that some constituents from Mkhiweni Inkhundla had invested over E5 000 each. Later on, some SWEET members launched an online petition, where they demanded that the people responsible for taking their monies should be taken to task.
Following the online petition, the CBE conducted investigations into the organisation, together with the FSRA. It was reported that there was about E27 million at Swaziland Building Society, which had the SWEET members’ names on it. On November 24, 2021, the CBE and FSRA issued a joint statement where they informed the nation that the investigation of SWEET and Sweet Micro Finance (SMF) had been completed.It said the findings and conclusions showed that there were signs of criminal activities, dishonesty and deliberate non-observance of corporate governance among the Board, management and agents of the organisation and related stakeholders.
Statement
The statement also said the investigation report and all relevant supporting documents would be handed over to the relevant law enforcement agencies for consideration and further appropriate action with regard to the elements of criminality observed during the investigation. In December 2021, the bank said it had recommended that individuals, who were identified to have participated in or benefitted from fraudulent activities should be referred to the relevant law enforcement agencies for criminal investigation and/or prosecution.
On April 13, 2022, the CBE announced the appointment of Sakimo Group (Pty) Ltd as liquidators of the fund. The company, the CBE explained, is a South Africa-based independent consulting firm specialising in forensic accounting and fraud examination. In August 2022, the CBE gave an update on the progress made on the liquidation exercise. It stated that the South African consulting firm had collated information and identified certain assets belonging to SWEET and these included both physical and electronic records and funds held at various financial institutions.
Also, it mentioned that the liquidators were in the process of finalising an account that detailed the estimated value of SWEET assets and liabilities and that at the conclusion of the above exercise, a notice would be issued by the liquidators inviting claimants and or depositors to lodge their claims in an appropriate format to be accompanied by an affidavit. Thereafter, a rigorous exercise of determining each claim would be undertaken, followed by a distribution of what has been realised to claimants.
Source: TIMES
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