By Zweli Martin Dlamini

MBABANE:Phil Mnisi,the Central Bank of Eswatini(CBE) Governor is allegedly targeting to block all suspicious transactions for Non Governmental Organizations(NGOs) with the newly introduced Forex transactions amid fears that, regime-change “is allegedly funded by foreign agencies”.

It is alleged that,the instruction came from King Mswati but, his Spokesperson Percy Simelane vigorously denied these allegations when responding to this Swaziland News on Monday evening.

“To the best of our knowledge the Governor of the Central Bank of Eswatini,Phil Mnisi advises the King on monies handled by the Kingdom of Eswatini and not the otherway round.The practice to monitor  foreign monies entering Eswatini generally has been in place for longer than the politics behind pegging NGOs to every government around the world as Development Partners.We view the allegations as yet another attempt to demonize the King for sins he is far from committing logically and ideally.If anything,the monitoring in question to guard against funding of political ideologies would have to be a piece of legislation than a royal suggestion;Eswatini is a civilized  country and the King remains larger than zoo talk”,said the King’s Spokesperson.

It has been disclosed that,King Mswati was concerned that,monies that allegedly funded the recent political unrest came from other countries and urged the Governor to take advantage of the newly introduced Forex banking system to monitor the transactions.

But the Forex banking system that now frustrates transactions in eSwatini and might result to various businesses shutting down,was also introduced even by the South African Reserve Bank(SARB) to countries under what “is known as the Common Monetary Area(CMA)”.

Mandla Luphondvo, the Spokesperson of the Central Bank of Eswatini maintained that, Forex was introduced in the country, as a result of regional regulatory changes adding that, banks “are currently embarking” in a campaign to educate the public about Forex.

“Banks,whose customers have been affected by this regional development, of regularising cross border payments, are driving public education on this.For our part, as a regulator,we have contributed towards raising awareness too.But of course more ground still needs to be covered through customer engagement,to get to full alignment with customers and the broader public”, said the Central Bank Spokesperson when responding to this publication.

Reached for comments on Monday evening by this Swaziland News,Thembinkosi Dlamini, the Executive Director of the Coordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental Organizations(CANGO) confirmed that, as NGOs, the Government “is accusing them” of being a conduit for money laundering and financing of terrorism.

“We are aware that,banks or the Central Bank is targeting us as we are accused of being a conduit for money-laundering and financing of terrorism.But what we don’t understand is the fact that,the Minister of Finance Neal Rijikernberg clarified this issue saying the Central Bank conducted an investigation and discovered that, the allegations suggesting that, NGOs were funding the political unrest, were not true.But when you read the Bill or the proposed law targeting NGOs, you can see that the Government is not convinced,they want to shut down NGOs suspected of receiving money suspected that, it might fund regime-change programs,” said the CANGO Executive Director.

Eswatini is currently under a state of confusion as the newly introduced Forex delays payments from and to the Republic of South Africa(RSA), the country imports almost 100% goods from RSA and millions are transacted daily.

The new transaction method is not only expected to frustrate transactions for ordinary citizens but, the trade and investment speed might be affected as payments now take days to reflect in bank accounts for suppliers.