By Zweli Martin Dlamini

MBABANE:Prince Lonkhonkhela,the then Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of the Eswatini National Provident Fund(ENPF) now Minister of Natural Resources and Energy, has over thirty(30) children registered under his name with the Ministry of Home Affairs Registrar of Birth Certificates Computer Government system.

Worth-noting, a majority of the young girls were allegedly impregnated between 1999 and 2016 at the ages of fifteen(15), sixteen(16) and some at seventeen(17) while attending schools in the Manzini Region and other areas.

This means Prince Lonkhokhela allegedly committed statutory rape by impregnating under-age school girls, some of the Minister’s children are being maintained with money sourced from public funds through a multimillion royal annual grant paid by King Mswati to the late King Sobhuza’s children.

The grant amounts to over two hundred thousand Rands(R200,000.00) per-year for each royal family member born from the Royal House of King Sobhuza.

The Natural Resources Minister declined to comment about the matter when reached by this Swaziland News on Tuesday evening.

On another note, Minister Prince Lonkhokhela allegedly colluded with the Eswatini Energy Regulatory Authority(ESERA) to increase electricity tariffs with over fourteen percent(14%), he is highly expected to benefit from this decision as part of the over R1billion to be collected from poor emaSwati’s pockets, will be transferred to the King’s Office for the benefit of royalty.

The increase in electricity tariffs amid the poverty situation in eSwatini has been condemned by the People’s United Democratic Movement(PUDEMO) and trade unions.

Reached for comments earlier on Tuesday afternoon, Mduduzi Gina, the Secretary General of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland(TUCOSWA) described the increase in electricity tariffs as exorbitantly high and “out of touch with the realities of the consumers which he said by and large, are the workers and their families”.

The TUCOSWA Secretary General further mentioned that, any double digit increase “cannot be acceptable in the face of the inflation figures of 2024 and the projected inflation” for 2025 being 4.17 and 5.25 % ,respectively. 

“This increase must be rejected by the population.State Owned Enterprises like EEC must recall that they are government owned organizations and they are not in a business of making profits.ECC should conduct its business with the mindset of being en-abler of economic development. With a high cost of electricity the country cannot grow its productivity as production costs increases. The workers are always at the receiving end of these decisions as the employers would use same to justify non increase of worker wages. It is not clear why for this long the country has depended largely on emported power as opposed to the utilization of the vast coal at its disposal.The country has a quality coal that can be exchanged profitable with the neighbours for the type of coal needed for power generation. We call upon EEC to cause for the effect of reasonable electricity tariffs within the inflation rate bracket. The Federation shall mobilize its members and their families to reject this increase. As a show of disapproval we shall deliver petitions to all deports and offices of the EEC on dates to coincide with their intended effective date”, said the TUCOSWA Secretary General.