By Zweli Martin Dlamini

NOKWANE:Prince Vumile, the removed Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of the Royal Science and Technology Park(RSTP) allegedly colluded with Kareem Ashraff, the influential, powerful and politically connected SwaziPharm Director to manipulate the State entity and spy on Government operations including Intelligence Agencies thus undermining the Sovereignty of the country.

This has been disclosed through highly confidential documents, amid an ongoing high level investigation conducted by this Swaziland News into the affairs or operations of the Royal Science and Technology Park, a State entity under the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology(ICT).

Dlamini is also alleged to have sabotaged the full implementation of an e-Government system and as a result, Government officials were forced to communicate through alleged ‘unsecure’ emails like Gmail, Yahho and Hotmail thus exposing State information to be at the hands of individuals instead of a secured and/or protected Government email system.

But some of the State documents in possession of this publication, cannot be revealed or quoted as this might compromise or expose the weakness of the entire Government system and make it vulnerable to alleged cyber-criminals.

“The institution has failed to develop a secure, robust and reliable email system for government”, reads the documents in part.

This disclosure comes after the widely reported over R100million fraud and corruption scandal involving the removed Chief Executive Officer, Dlamini is alleged to have colluded suppliers to loot millions of public funds and, an investigation by the Anti Corruption Commission(ACC) in this regard,was subsequently sabotaged.

It is alleged that, Ashraff is or was a supplier at the Technology Park and involved in the provision of Information Technology(IT) services among others and this, gave him an opportunity to gain access to critical State information including alleged spying of Government operations and State owned entities.

Both Kareem Ashraff and Prince Vumile declined to comment regarding these serious allegations that compromised State security.

But apart from failing or compromising the e-Government system, Prince Vumile and Ashraff allegedly engaged in what is known as “data mining”.

In the language of Information Technology(IT) or cyber security, data mining includes the collection of large data and in the context of the alleged collusion between Ashraff and Prince, an investigation conducted by this publication uncovered that, the data was then used to monitor Government operations, identification of future viable projects thus  placing Kareem Ashraff at an advantage of positioning himself for potential business opportunities.

Furthermore, the powerful and politically connected businessman and Prince Vumile, were allegedly able to gain access to State Intelligence Security reports and further monitor the entire flow of information within the Government system.

But apart from that, the highly confidential information suggests that Prince Vumile and others within the Technology Park were allegedly selling part of the State information about individuals to banks and other institutions that might require due diligence.