MBABANE: Macford Sibandze, the Manzini North Member of Parliament(MP) presented two cows to multi-billionaire King Mswati during his birthday celebration ahead of Cabinet appointments, the private event was held at Hlane Royal Residence.

This comes at the time when 89 families at Madonsa under his constituency are facing evictions and struggling to put food on the table, they are appealing to the international community and the Nation for donations to buy land.

Eswatini, a tiny Kingdom situated in Southern Africa has about 70% of the population living below the poverty line, citizens are restricted from forming political parties to participate in elections, Cabinet Ministers, the Prime Minister, Judges and members of all Governing Councils are appointed by the King.

Reached for comments, Fikile Mbuyisa, the Chairperson of the Madonsa residents facing evictions said they were not surprised that their MP decided to donate to the King at the time when they were desperately in need of assistance.

“We once approached him for assistance when he was a Minister and told us that he cannot be seen assisting us because he was on the side of Government. Even now he is writing an application letter to go to Cabinet by presenting the cows to the King and we are not expecting anything from him as he neglected us long time ago”, said the Madonsa residents Chairperson.

When reached for comments, the Manzini North Member of Parliament confirmed that the residents approached him while he was in Cabinet, he said he was making arrangements to collaborate with One Billion Rising, a women rights organization to discuss possible ways on how the residents could be assisted.

“It’s true they approached me while in Cabinet they feel like I neglected them, however, I’m making arrangements to collaborate with One Billion Rising to visit them so we can discuss how they can be assisted” said the Manzini North MP.