MBABANE: Princess Sikhanyiso who receives over E60,000.00 salary as a Cabinet Minister for doing nothing spent over E1.5million on her golden decorated house interior at Sigcineni.

This disclosure comes few weeks after this Swaziland News reported that the Information Minister who boycotted her Cabinet duties pending the removal of the late Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini from power bought a Mercedes Benz that cost over E600,000.00 for her military boyfriend Khayelihle Patrick Dlamini.

Princess Sikhanyiso is the first born daughter of King Mswati who is counted among the richest Monarchies in the world, in a country where about 70% of the population lives below the poverty line.

Now, evidence in our possession suggests that the Princess, engaged Ghaliyah Investment for interior and decoration services, the project marred by allegations of fraud and corruption commenced last year.

An independent investigation by this publication uncovered that on or around 28 June 2020, Princess Sikhanyiso diverted funds due to Ghaliyah Investment and paid the sum of E173,195.00 to the First National Bank(FNB) in the personal account number 62846059443 belonging to Ake Polycarp, one of the company’s Directors thus defrauding the Eswatini Revenue Authority(SRA) in taxes. The payment was part of a E555,000.00 deal for services rendered in the decoration of the Princess house interior.

Documents in our possession further suggests the overall costs for the construction job and or decoration was around E555,000.00($34,375.00) and by December 2020, the Princess had paid over E275,000.00($17,187.50) while another payment of E280,000.00($17,500.00) was due in few days.

The Information Minister further imported material golden material for the interior that cost over E1million, she spent some time at her new house during few weeks ago during the festive season.

A questionnaire was sent to Princess Sikhanyiso where she was asked to respond about her house golden decorated interior, the allegations suggesting that she was receiving payment from government for doing nothing after she boycotted her Cabinet duties pending the removal of the late Prime Minister, however, she had not responded at the time of compiling this report.

Reached for comments, Pius Vilakati, the Spokesperson of the Communist Party of Swaziland(CPS) said Princess Sikhanyiso was part of an institution of the Monarchy that loots public funds.

“You will recall that recently, it was reported that she bought a Mercedes Benz for her boyfriend, she is not only looting taxpayers money but is also ambitious to rule this country. It is therefore important that as Swazis,we must remove the institution of the Monarchy because the problem is not only Mswati but the whole institution is looting public resources” said the CPS Spokesperson.

On or around November 2019, this publication reported that the Princess boycotted her Cabinet duties since then, she had been getting paid from public coffers for doing nothing, however, members of the public recently questioned her through her Instagram account about her tension with the late PM. She denied any conflict with the late Head of Government despite that she sent ‘hot’text messages to this journalist questioning the seniority of the Prime Minister.

“The Prime and I have never ever had a verbal showdown, anyone who has encountered me can uttest to my Eswatini bred reverence for any human individual, let alone the Chairman of Cabinet in Parliament Business”she said.

But sources close to the Princess said behind the scenes, she 'laughed' saying the death of the Prime Minister will restore the country from being captured by the Jesus Calls Worship Centre, a powerful and politically connected church in eSwatini to which the PM was a member.

“She describes the death of the PM as a huge relief saying it will restore the country from being captured by the JC” said a source very close to the Princess.

Even though the Princess later denied any showdown with the Prime Minister, on or around January 2020, she sent ‘hot’ text messages to this journalist saying the PM was not the third most senior person in the country thus confirming the power-struggle between her and the Prime Minister. She later threatened this journalist and subsequently sent a battalion of police officers from the Tingcungculu Investigating Unit to arrest him few days after sending the threatening messages.

"The PM is not third in the line of seniority in the land, follow the salutation during the next national event" read one of the text messages sent by the Princess to this journalist.

But the Information Minister later clarified that she was not eligible to become the next Prime Minister, however, in her statement she did not mention why she refused to go back to work under the late Prime Minister's administration.

“Prime Ministers are selected from the royal households of Dlamini but not the ruling household, so stop degrading yourself with these infantile thoughts” said the Princess when responding to a member of the public on Instagram who blamed her for allegedly plotting to remove the Prime Minister.