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GOVT DISHES E10M FOR FENCING MPSâ€™ HOMES

By Mbono Mdluli | 2018-12-14

Government has set aside a loan of about E10.3 million for the purpose of fencing homes for legislators.

The loan facility is up to E10 300 000, as each legislator is expected to secure a loan of up to E100 000 to have their homes fenced.

There are currently 73 MPs in the House of Assembly and there are 30 senators at the upper chamber. That adds up to 103 legislators. However, it will be up to the legislators to make use of the loan or not. The loan was interest-free last term, during the 10th Parliament.

However, it must be noted that the facility is not yet available to the legislators. Government is still in the process of making it available to the lawmakers.

Once it is available, legislators would be free to go to their respective banks and access the loan and fence their homes.

The legislators will also be informed of the interests in due course once the facility has been processed.

They will also be informed of their payments in due course. Last week, officials from the ministry of finance informed MPs that the loans would only be for fencing their homes, nothing else. The officials said legislators’ status called for them and their families to be protected.

Exploit

Government is of the view that legislators need to be secured because of the type of occupation they are in now.

As legislators, they should be protected from people who could want to take advantage of them and unfairly exploit the positions of being legislators.

The lawmakers are allowed to get a loan of any amount below E100 000, but the E100 000 is the maximum they can get on this facility.

Some of the legislators were called yesterday to find out if they were able to access the loan. They said they were still waiting for an update from the ministry of finance on the matter. The legislators welcomed the loan facility, saying it could play a very important role in ensuring that they had security.

They said they wished that the loan could be easily accessible because even now, they lived in difficult conditions as they have to see how they can protect themselves.

Protect

They said they came from the elections, where their victory was not sweet to other people. They needed to protect themselves from people who could be bitter because of the fact that they won the elections that were held from May to September this year.

“We wish that the loans could be available as soon as possible because we cannot run away from the fact that some people are not happy that we are in Parliament,” said one legislator when called.

The legislators also urged government to consider adding some flexibility to the loan facility. They said sometimes, they had good fences around their homes. They could need the loans to cater for other needs like housing and education.

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