By Zweli Martin Dlamini

Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo was seen with Deputy Prime Minister(DPM) Thulisile Motsa-Dladla touring the damage caused by the recent floods across the country.

Well, before that, I had received intelligence information from inside Cabinet suggesting that, Prime Minister(PM) Russell Mmiso Dlamini would be visiting the various Constituencies and Imiphakatsi to distribute food as he “feels the Deputy Prime Minister is taking all the glory by distributing food and building houses for the poor, the PM wants to interact with the people as well”.

The PM was then seen at Mafutseni under Chief Ngalonkhulu Mabuza distributing food, he was warmly welcomed by Chief Ngalonkhulu Mabuza who was with Regional Administrator(RA) Prince Chief Gija among other high profile individuals including traditional authorities.

Personally, I don’t perceive this as an unusual disagreement, in fact when politicians including the Prime Minister scramble to help and interact with the poor in the various communities, we must regard this as a ‘positive disagreement.

It’s normal to disagree in Cabinet or politics and in due course, perhaps one must analyze deeply, the leadership style of the Prime Minister to fully understand who is the problem between him and other Cabinet Ministers.

But I’m particularly concerned with hypocritical conduct of Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo who after receiving information suggesting that, the PM clashed with the Deputy Prime Minister,travelled from his house with scraped walls as previously seen, to join the team from the National Disaster Management Agency(NDMA) during the tour.

Even before the PM travelled to Mafutseni to distribute food, I had already received intelligence information suggesting that, there was tension between DPM Thuli Dladla and the Prime Minister, I delayed reporting just to allow the events to unfold and indeed, the PM was seen distributing food, grabbing social activities under the Deputy Prime Minister’s Portfolio.

The question is; why was the Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo absent at Mafutseni with the Prime Minister if touring places or distributing food is now under the Government Spokesperson’s Office?.

Of course, he can claim his job allowed him to be there with the DPM so he can fully understand Government operations in response to the unfortunate natural disasters but, why he always absent himself on activities involving the Prime Minister?.

It is surprising to note that, Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo has opted to team-up with all those who disagree with the Prime Minister a few months before the expiry of his contract of employment.

As mentioned, I will address the Prime Minister in due course on whether it is right or wrong to interfere with the Deputy Prime Minister and other Minister’s political or administrative duties but for now, I am particularly concerned with the political parasite being Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo who always position himself for his own personal benefit.

All the Cabinet Ministers including the DPM who disagree with the Prime Minister’s leadership style must know that, Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo is a political parasite, he will manipulate them and take advantage of the situation to influence an extension of contract by the Civil Service Commission(CSC).

Alpheous Nxumalo has no loyalty, if he can reconcile with the PM, he will then badmouth the other Ministers including the DPM.

It was wrong in the first place for a whole Government Spokesperson to be aligned to a certain faction in Cabinet and I previously warned through an article that, it would be difficult for Alpheous to work with Russell Dlamini.

But as a Government Spokesperson, Nxumalo ought to have understood that the Prime Minister is the Head of Government and therefore, if he has issues with him, he must humbly himself and apologize, there’s no way a Government Spokesperson in this country could function or perform his/her duties effectively while maintaining or fueling tension with the Prime Minister.

Almost all Government operations link with the Office of the Prime Minister and even if Thulisile Dladla or other Ministers who disagree with the PM could influence the renewal of Nxumalo’s contract, there’s no way he can effectively, perform his duties without having a good working relationship with the Prime Minister.

Nxumalo once sent a Whatsap message mistakenly to my cellphone number, the message was actually directed to Defense Principal Secretary(PS) Prince Sicalo and he was saying;

“Kunesitfombe sakho MntfwaneNkhosi lapho ushuthe khona ubulele inyamatane ngesibhamu manje laba bema-progressive sebasebentisa sona to push their agenda, ubocaphela”.

Worth-noting, Nxumalo was unemployed at the time after being dismissed by the Swazi Observer Board of Directors on allegations of fraud and corruption and with the above message, he was systematically grabbing the attention of Prince Sicalo using pro-democracy activists.

In fact, he was positioning himself as a person who care about Prince Sicalo yet he was hungry and desperate.

Like weather, Nxumalo’s behavior changes, depending on whether his stomach is full or empty and now, he is aligning himself with the DPM while failing to understand that, the Deputy Prime Minister might disagree with the PM today and work with him tomorrow, there are no permanent enemies in politics but permanent interests.

The Prime Minister will be smiling with the DPM this week during a retreat at the Royal Villas, this is politics and only a political frog will jump from one dam to the other, depending on the political temperatures.