By Bongiwe Dlamini

MBABANE: Sivumelwano Nyembe, the Spokesperson of the pro-democracy MultiStakeholder Forum(MSF) says, the new Parliament will not, in any way,serves the public interest but instead, Members of the House of Assembly will earn huge salaries.

Speaking to this Swaziland News on Wednesday, after being asked to comment regarding the collective amount of money to be pocketed by the new MPs in the next five(5) years, the MSF Spokesperson said, it was the Parliament that contributed to the current oppression by ‘rubber-stamping’ laws that seek to suppress the people.

Eswatini has about 70% of the population living below the poverty line, political parties are banned from participating in elections.

MPs including Speaker in the House of Assembly Jabulani ‘Buy Cash’ Mabuza are highly expected to collectively pocket over R240million as salaries from public coffers in the next five(5) years.

“We are not expecting anything from this Parliament, in fact we rejected the election process from the beginning on the basis that, the process was not democratic, hence there’s no way, we could expect it to act in the public interest,” said the MSF Spokesperson.

Efforts to reach Jabulani ‘Buy Cash’ Mabuza, the Speaker in the House of Assembly proved unsuccessful at the time of compiling this report.

On another note, Sivumelwano Nyembe, the MSF Spokesperson noted that, the current parliamentary system was lacking in efficacy. 

“The same conditions and issues persist, such as poor governance, inefficient resource allocation, and a lack of effective supervision of the executive branch. National resources are being accessed without proper accountability, and this status quo cannot continue.To address these critical concerns, our nation urgently requires a comprehensive political dialogue that will pave the way for a new parliament based on the principles of multiparty democracy. The people are in dire need of genuine representation to safeguard our national resources and to ensure that taxes are directed toward the collective benefit of our society, rather than benefiting only a selected few individuals,” he said.