By Zweli Martin Dlamini

MBABANE:Neal Rijikernberg, the eSwatini Minister of Finance has warned Home Affairs Princess Lindiwe against legitimizing corruption within the Department particularly, by selectively awarding tenders in violation of the Procurement Act.

This comes amid serious allegations of corruption and maladministration within the Ministry of Home Affairs, “the Minister is alleged to be involved in awarding tenders to a company or companies to which she stands to benefit”.

But in a letter dated 16th April 2025, the Finance Minister ordered the Princess to comply with the provisions of the Procurement Act and, award tenders to different eSwatini companies.

Worth-noting, the Home Affairs Minister has been secretly “attempting to award a multimillion electronic visa tender to a company to which she stands to benefit,” however, Minister Neal Rijikernberg’s letter only specified national activities.

“It has been observed that, your Ministry conducts procurement through an agent or third party. This practice is contrary to the public procurement principles as stated in the Procurement Act 2011. This is tantamount to discrimination of suppliers. The restriction of procurement of activities for national events to one service provider is strictly prohibited,”reads the letter in part.

Efforts to seek a comment from Acting Government Spokesperson Thabile Mdluli proved unsuccessful at the time of compiling this report.

Reached for comments by this Swaziland News on Monday evening, Johannes Manikela, the Business Federation of Eswatini(BFE)  Head of Trade and Investment, applauded the Finance Minister for taking action to promote fairness in the awarding of Government tenders.

Manikela said, the demand for transparency and accountability by the Finance Minister demonstrates that, Rijikernberg subscribes to good governance principles and, wants other companies to benefit from Government tenders.

“As SMEs we are very happy to note that, the Finance Minister is taking action and that, he is concerned about us as small businesses. It’s true that, some local companies have closed because of this corruption, money is not circulating in the country as only a few are benefiting from Government tenders. If there are projects, let us share the money through the fair distribution of the tenders but the Finance Minister must investigate even other Ministries,” said the Business Federation of Eswatini Head of Trade and Investment.