MBABANE:Bertram Steward, the Principal Secretary(PS) in the Prime Minister’s Office allegedly bullied, intimidated and accused an Education Ministry employee of reporting him to the Anti-Corruption Commission(ACC) amid the R20million COVID-19 funds looting scandal.
It is alleged that Steward,after learning that the ACC was investigating him, approached some employees of the Ministry of Education and Training(MoET) where he was the PS, questioning them why they reported him to the Anti-Corruption Commission(ACC), the questioned employees were allegedly privy to the dealings of the PS.
When this Swaziland News approached one of the employees he confirmed that, the PS questioned him after the ACC started to investigate the corruption allegations.
“I saw the article that you have published about the PS and after receiving your message I was afraid why you even think of contacting me. Mine phela ngagcina sengsolwa kutsi ngimi loye ka-Anti Corruption ngibe ngingawati nemnyango waka ACC kutsi unjani. The problem was that, he knew that some of us were aware of his corrupt dealings and he was questioning almost everyone trying to find out who reported him”, said the Government employee whose name cannot be revealed for ethical reasons.
The Government employee alleged that, some businesspeople who were aggrieved even took pictures of Steward’s van delivering goods in the various schools as part of the R20million looting.He said after a complaint was forwarded to the Ministry that the PS cannot allocate a tender to himself, he continued with arrogance.
“I was then surprised upon learning that he was suspecting me because, he did this corruption openly and with arrogance”, said the Government employee.
This Swaziland News after receiving detailed information from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions(DPP) and the Anti-Corruption Commission(ACC) previously reported that, Prime Minister(PM) Russell Mmiso Dlamini who is also implicated in the looting of about R180million COVID-19 donations as per the report of the Auditor General(AG) Timothy Matsebula,stopped the ACC from arresting the PS.
Both the PS and the Prime Minister(PM) failed to respond when questioned about the multimillion COVID-19 looting scandal.
Reached for comments on Thursday,human rights lawyer Sibusiso Nhlabatsi said, the Prime Minister(PM) “is defying the King who commanded him to fight corruption” by stopping the arrest of the PS.
“Then you ask yourself; if he is defying his boss being the King who commanded him to fight corruption, what does this mean?.Secondly,Prime Minister, despite being the Minister of Police,does not have powers in law, to stop any arrest once there is a prima facie case against any individual, he has no power to stop that arrest.What he is doing now is undermining the rule of law and the administration of justice in the country while putting the whole administration of justice into disrepute.But again,by frustrating the law enforcement agencies, this might mean he is demonstrating that,he is part of the corruption.Lastly, maybe we can ask ourselves what is preventing the police from effecting the arrest because if there’s a prima facie case, they have a right in terms of Section 189 of the Constitution to effect the arrest, the police can just defy the PM’s order and effect the arrest”, said the human rights lawyer.
PS Bertram Steward.