By Delisa Thwala
The Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development on behalf of His Majesty’s Government is reviewing the National Decentralisation Policy of 2005.
This is taking place through a four-day workshop held at Pigg’s Peak Hotel in the Hhohho region.
The Minister of Tinkhundla, Sikhumbuzo Dlamini graced the second day of the workshop and implored all stakeholders to engage actively and openly to inform a Policy that will be relevant and consistent with the Constitution.
“We desire that your inputs will pave the way to a decentralisation transformation agenda and provide clear directives and strategies for the decentralisation and devolution of the governance system from the national to the local governments,” said Dlamini.
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Worth mentioning is that, to this end, devolution of power and authority must be the cornerstones of the Policy.
The common purpose of the workshop attended by over 20 stakeholders is to make contributions to inform the review of the National Decentralisation Policy of 2005 and ensure that the revised Policy once developed, is aligned to the provisions of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini Act 2005.
In particular, ensure that it is relevant to inform the operationalization of Chapter XIII on Local Government.
Worth mentioning is that the Policy under review was adopted during the same year that the Constitution was adopted, and after 19 years of its life, it remains bothersome that several areas in the Policy have not been implemented.
“Whilst many efforts were made over the years to adopt legislation that would support the implementation of the National Decentralisation Policy, all the efforts proved futile,”
“This is largely since Chapter XIII of the Constitution, which provides for the development of a single country-wide local government system, based on the Tinkhundla system of Government has not been implemented,” said the Minister.
He further said to this end, the development of legislation that will provide for the development of systems that will guide the implementation of unified.
