By Zweli Martin Dlamini

MBABANE:Savannah Maziya, the independent minded Minister of Information, Communication and Technology(ICT) is allegedly at loggerheads with Prime Minister(PM) Russell Mmiso Dlamini.

This disclosure comes after the Information Minister, a successful and multibillionaire businesswoman vigorously opposed the Prime Minister's moves to regulate and silence the media, she told Parliament that, State regulation will undermine media freedom.

“It was an established practice world over,that the government does not regulate the media as that is construed as a violation of freedom of the media, which is enshrined in the national Constitution, the government can only facilitate by enabling the media to self-regulate”, said the Information Minister when responding to Parliament.

A questionnaire was sent to outgoing Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo, however, he had not responded at the time of compiling this report

It is alleged that political tension erupted inside a Cabinet meeting, a few days before the PM traveled to Taiwan and this, was after the Prime Minister allegedly demanded money for a certain project from Finance Minister Neal Rijikernberg who reportedly declined.

Thereafter, the PM allegedly issued an order directing that, the Information Minister must approve that part of the monies from her Ministry’s budget be allocated to the project.

Cabinet sources who were present during the meeting told this Swaziland News on Saturday that, the Minister did not take kindly to the Prime Minister’s dictatorship behavior and vigorously opposed him in front of other Ministers.

It is alleged that, the independent minded businesswoman allegedly told the PM that, she will never allow him to interfere in the operations of the ICT Ministry, she wondered what would be her duties as a Minister if the PM will just issue an order or directive.

“It was during that heated argument where the Prime Minister banged the table, washaya litafula watsi “ngimi Prime Minister lana ngitsi ayiphume lemali. Minister Savannah wavele watsi “lalela-ke mfana wami, ungaboshaya litafula nawukhuluma nami, ngisho indvodza yami ayilishayi litafula nayikhuluma nami”, said the Cabinet source.

The alleged dramatic tension between the PM and the ICT Minister, comes after the Prime Minister intensified moves to regulate the media, the PM was previously exposed by journalists for allegedly looting about R180million public donor funds while working as the Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of the National Disaster Management Agency(NDMA).