By Zweli Martin Dlamini

SIMUNYE:Nick Jackson,the Managing Director of the Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation(RESC)says,the sugar company has development programs in place not only for Mgidzangcunu in Vuvulane but and other surrounding areas.

Responding to this Swaziland News on Saturday when asked what the company was doing to develop the lives of the people of Mgidzangcunu considering the fact that,the area “is situated next to the sugar company,” the Managing Director said, they have programs targeting many surrounding areas.

This comes after the Deputy Prime Minister(DPM) Thulisile Dladla visited Mgidzangcunu this week,to assess the poverty situation.

Eswatini has about 70% of the population living below the poverty line and in 2016, the World Food Program(WFP) reported that, over three hundred thousand(300000) citizens were urgently in need of food aid.

“There is no poverty alleviation programme that is specific to Mgidzangcunu.We have a general programme that is targetting many fenceline communities.The following CSI activities are part of the collaborations we have with communities:RES Siyakha 1800 youth soccer development+non-league community soccer.Healthcare support by RES Clinics such as free ambulance services, health outreach programs etc:Youth entrepreneurship.Potable Water projects.Women empowerment-market shelters as enterprise development.Area specific requests such as road maintenance at Khuphuka,wheelchair & school shoes donation”, said the Managing Director when responding to editor Zweli Martin Dlamini.

The Managing Director further mentioned that,the company “has a disaster response program”’ such as national food security support, drought,house and fire incidents amongst others.

“Sanitation projects such as Maphiveni pit latrines initiative.We must also add that it is normally easier to work with communities that are structured in terms of leadership,demographics and the presence of development committees.We recently had our annual engagement with community leaders and our talks entailed an account of the above activities and discussing future possibilities,”said the Managing Director.