By Zweli Martin Dlamini

It is an open secret within the Ministry of Commerce,Industry and Trade that Minister Mancoba Khumalo and his Principal Secretary(PS)Siboniso Nkambule are political foes,at some point,their disagreements would be nasty.

But despite this,the Ministry of Commerce is one of the best performing or busiest Ministries in the Governing structure of the country.

This week,the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards were re-launched and this clearly demonstrated the hard work behind the scenes in securing sponsors and arranging other logistics.

PS Siboniso Nkambule is a brother to Mswati’s favourite wife,Inkhosikati LaNkambule and this automatically made him the most powerful civil servant.

Perhaps, one of the reasons the tension between the Minister and the PS did not attract the attention of the media is that their hard work overshadowed their weaknesses.

It would be a scandal if we had received grievances suggesting that the tension between them halted projects and undermined Foreign Direct Investment(FDI),but that did not happen.

Instead,we saw the establishment of projects within the Ministry,our main concern was the issue of low salaries but that should be sorted by Labour Minister Phila Buthelezi.

Perhaps,what we can learn from the relationship between the Minister and the PS is that you can disagree but work together.

I may not delve much on what created the tension between the two, maybe I will do so in due course if it becomes of public interest.

But these two managed to protect the image of their public duties despite their differences,projects were launched and this should be commended.

Leadership suggests that you must work even with those who don't agree with you,this should be a lesson to traditional, corporate and political leaders.

Don’t block projects and frustrate national development because of personal differences.