By Zweli Martin Dlamini

MBABANE: Clifford Mamba, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development says Government is not aware of the ongoing dispute within the Pigg’s Peak Town Council.

Police were deployed at Pigg’s Peak this week to shoot residents who were protesting against alleged injustices by the Town Council, these include the grabbing of plots from the poor to benefit the rich and powerful.

“We are not aware that there are problems at Pigg’s Peak and if such problems exist, maybe those involved are dealing with them at Municipality level,” said the Principal Secretary when responding to questions from this publication.

Speaking to this Swaziland News,Dumsani Bafana Mkhonta of the Ratepayers Association accused the Pigg’s Peak Municipality of grabbing land from the poor including widows who were struggling to pay rates.

“These people within the Municipality work as a syndicate, they grab the plots from the poor who are struggling to pay rates and sell them to the rich and powerful,”said the Executive member of the Ratepayers Association.

But Mzwandile Ndzinisa, the Pigg’s Peak Chief Executive Officer(CEO) when responding to our questionnaire, clarified that the Town Council was not involved in any land grabbing exercise but collects rates to fund projects.

“Please note that Pigg’s Peak Town Council is not involved in any land grabbing exercise, rather like all local authorities we collect rates to fund planned projects and programs. So with regards to the planned sale of properties through public auction to recover outstanding rates that was called off on Friday, that was last resort effort to recover outstanding rates. Finally, the planned public auction was called off at the eleventh hour, since the rates defaulters settled their rates,” said the Pigg’s Peak CEO.