By Zweli Martin Dlamini

MBABANE: Senator Savannah Maziya,the newly appointed Minister of Information, Communication and Technology(ICT) is a busy and highly regarded successful businesswoman well-known across the African continent.

On Wednesday, the businesswoman was officially sworn-in as the new eSwatini ICT Minister after being appointed by King Mswati and according to information sourced from the Women Economic Forum(WEF), Savannah Maziya holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the United States of America(USA) and an MBA from the United Kingdom(UK).

The swearing-in ceremony was attended by among others, Phesheya Dube, the ICT Principal Secretary(PS), the Minister’s husband Hubert Danso, Prime Minister(PM) Russell Mmiso Dlamini, Under Secretary(US) Macanjana Motsa, Director of Information Senani Khumalo and Communications Officer Gugu Nkambule.

An investigation conducted by this Swaziland News after the new Minister missed important Cabinet meetings or events uncovered that, Maziya is the founder and Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of a multibillion company, Bunengi Group of Companies.

Bunengi Group Holdings, a company based in South Africa, focuses mostly on mining, infrastructure development and has a long and storied involvement in the mining sector harking back to its founding in 2004, with an initial investment in Yserfontein Coal Mine, one of the very first black-owned mining properties.

It has been disclosed that, the Minister’s Bunengi Holdings(Pty) Ltd holds investment shares with the well-known construction company WBHO and as a result of the investment interest,the Minister served as a Board member at WBHO and has been integral in the transforming of the construction company.

Bunengi Holdings,the multibillion company owned by the new eSwatini Information, Communication and Technology(ICT)Minister also holds shares with the global technology company, Cisco Systems that is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange and this shareholding,it has been disclosed, is intended both for strategic and investment purposes to assist Bunengi Group in the furtherance of it’s future broader business objectives.

But apart from having investment interests in the ICT, mining, engineering, construction and/or infrastructure development sectors,Bunengi Group CEO Savannah Maziya currently holds a significant position as the Executive Chairperson at WSP Africa, one of the world’s largest and most respected consultant engineering firms.

WSP has a wide global network of investment entities and, is an essential player in the infrastructural development sector across the entire African continent.

But apart from that, WSP Africa appeared to constitute a strategic knowledge base and its involvement in the new ICT Minister’s global network of business interests, aggregates and provides relevant professional engineering expertise that is vital or essential to the various businesses and projects that the Bunengi Groups Operating Divisions and Business Units are involved in.

Bunengi Group Holdings(Pty) Ltd also hold shares at Deton Engineering(Pty) Ltd, a South African domiciled company that provides bespoke solutions for the mining industry.

Deton has significant capabilities for the fabrication and manufacturing of engineering products and this shareholding, according to Bunengi Group website,is meant  “to solidify the increasingly influential role that the Bunengi Group intends to fulfil in the mining, construction, and engineering sectors”.

Efforts to reach the new Information, Communication and Technology(ICT) Minister Savannah Maziya for a comment,proved unsuccessful at the time of compiling this report.

But King Mswati’s Spokesperson Percy Simelane, when responding to this Swaziland News on Wednesday afternoon regarding the appointment of the Minister said, the King wanted a veteran for the Ministry of ICT who will transform the sector that “is key or fundamental” to development.

“To the best of our knowledge the  King wants an all-systems- go kind of national development to ensure maximum delivery.ICTs have become key to development and we want to believe the King wanted a real veteran for this space.With her magnatic personality,Minister Savanah Maziya can work with anybody anywhere in the world.We know her to be a straight-faced woman who does  not pretend to be happy with something she is not happy about”, said the King Spokesperson.

But apart from the various subsidies, the new ICT Minister’s investment company has a Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) known as Bunengi Foundation,an initiative established to actively intervene and support the development of African women in technical and scientific fields.

Established in 2010,Bunengi Foundation’s core objectives among others include,recruiting, marshalling, and coalescing corporate support and funding and then directing it towards the specific application of providing a highly systemized, highly co-ordinated, personally mentored and fully funded career-path plan for carefully selected and academically deserving candidates.

It seeks to among others, generally assist young black women,prior to leaving high school and from a diversity of countries across the entire African continent.

A research conducted by this Swaziland News further uncovered that, this Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) initiative continues to be one of the key missions of the Bunengi Group Holdings(Pty) Ltd to continue the crucial work, and “indeed, to dramatically scale-up the capacity of the Bunengi Foundation to take-on an ever-increasing number of deserving candidates with the concomitant objective of growing the indigenous African technical and professional talent pool and to ensure that sufficient gender diversity is achieved”.