Business Eswatini is aware of news articles purporting to reveal a significant data leak of EFIU data. It would be improper to comment on something that’s ongoing and which we’re still trying to understand and confirm ourselves. That said though, one can’t deny that the story appears to expose areas of glaring institutional weakness, which need to be confirmed, and thoroughly investigated. It also highlights some institutional strength and independence, which we applaud. The matter of the CBE standing its ground on a certain matter and the case of the Minister of Finance recusing himself from chairing a meeting ostensibly to avoid a perceived conflict of interest, all serve as a case in point for positive institutional governance and institutional integrity, transparency and independence.

Our view as BE is that we should not waste this crisis but use it to formulate our remedial actions to address our weaknesses in the economy. There has been a concerted effort by regulatory authorities to close loopholes in the system and BE will continue to fully throw our weight behind such moves. As the legitimacy of the leaks are concerned, and whether or not they were authorized, we’ll leave that to the relevant enforcement authorities to deal with. It’s not our station as BE to address that aspect.

BE has engaged with its members in the financial sector, and can assure all of our stakeholders that our private banking and financial sector is secure, stable and sustainable and meets with the highest international best-practice.

As a society, we can’t ignore the fact that there are troubling instances of malfeasance and downright malpractice which seem to be thriving in some sectors of our economy and which are, sadly, obscured from public view. This is alarming to say the least. These widespread business malpractices which seek to subvert our financial regulatory framework should be rebuked with the contempt they deserve as they only serve to undermine the very objectives of government, which is to grow the economy for the benefit of all emaSwati. We have laws in this country to deal with such matters. Let’s use them. In the interim, BE will continue to monitor these developing stories and will issue a formal statement in due course.

By Management