The ministry of housing and urban development has been urged to urgently dissolve the Hlatikulu Town Board.
This is following a commission of inquiry which found deep-rooted governance failures, unlawful land transactions and a breakdown of administrative control that has stalled the town’s development.
Leaked recommendations from the commission set out a decisive course of action, disband the current board through a lawful process and appoint an interim structure to stabilise governance and restore lawful control before new leadership is installed.
The recommendation, contained in the commission’s final report, marks the strongest intervention proposed since complaints about the town board first surfaced and places the ministry under pressure to act on findings said to point to systemic dysfunction rather than isolated lapses.
Hlatikulu, a small but strategically located town in the southern part of the country, has in recent years struggled to keep pace with development demands.
Residents have raised concerns about land allocation, service delivery and transparency, with allegations steadily building into a case for formal intervention.
Those concerns culminated in the appointment of a Commission of Inquiry by the Minister, Appolo Maphalala, under powers provided by the Commission of Enquiry Act of 1963 and the Urban Government Act of 1969.
From the outset, Minister Maphalala made it clear that the probe was not a routine review, but a response to serious allegations of illegal sale and disposal of government land, administrative irregularities, and a failure by both the board and its executive arm to intervene or correct course.
A fact-finding mission by Ministry officials and an internal audit had already flagged ‘substantial weaknesses’ in land governance before the commission began its work.
The inquiry therefore entered with a paper trail suggesting structural issues, and its findings appear to confirm that trajectory.
READ MORE | Mbabane businessman Zweli appears for a pre-trial
At the core of the commission’s recommendations is a clear conclusion: the Hlatikulu Town Board is no longer capable of governing effectively in its current form.
The report points to failures across multiple layers of administration, including weak internal controls, poor recordkeeping, lack of oversight and compromised decision-making processes.
Crucially, it identifies governance not as a peripheral issue but as the root cause underpinning a cascade of operational problems, from land allocation disputes to financial mismanagement.
The proposed remedy is equally structural.
“The ministry should dissolve the current board and appoint an interim board to stabilise governance and restore lawful control,” the commission recommends.
Land management emerges as one of the most contentious and consequential failures.
The commission was mandated to examine “land allocation and sale practices, including allegations of unlawful benefit by any councillor, official, or individual.”
Its findings indicate a system that has drifted outside legal frameworks, with informal or irregular processes undermining public trust and creating conditions for potential abuse.
Among the corrective measures proposed is an immediate halt to the issuance of “temporary concessions” that purport to grant land rights outside lawful channels.
The commission further recommends a structured review of all such concessions to determine their legitimacy and identify pathways for regularisation where appropriate.
In parallel, it calls for the urgent convening of the Crown Lands Disposal Committee to address backlogs in plot allocation, regularise outstanding decisions and reintroduce transparent processes.
Taken together, these measures point to a land governance system that has effectively lost its regulatory anchor.
Beyond land issues, the report paints a picture of administrative dysfunction.
Employee records are incomplete or inconsistent.
Recruitment processes lack documentation.
Key positions, including Town Clerk, Accountant and Town Planner, require urgent filling or strengthening.
The commission, therefore, recommends a comprehensive overhaul of human resource systems, including the introduction of standardised employee files, formal policies and lawful recruitment procedures.
It also calls for the establishment of a whistleblower mechanism to protect staff who report wrongdoing.
Recordkeeping is another area of concern.
On this front, the town board is advised to institute structured filing systems, digitisation processes and document registers to ensure transparency and traceability of decisions.
The commission also raises red flags around procurement practices and financial management.
It recommends the immediate termination of employee-related supply arrangements and a re-tendering process aligned with procurement regulations.
More significantly, it calls for a forensic investigation into specific suppliers, PHD Stationery and Liks Boutique, covering a seven-year period from 2018 to 2025.
The scope of that proposed investigation is extensive: tender compliance, pricing benchmarks, payment authorisations, contract authenticity and conflict-of-interest declarations.
Where irregularities are confirmed, the commission advises recovery of funds and referrals to law enforcement agencies.
Such recommendations suggest not only procedural breaches but potential financial misconduct.
The report further highlights the need to strengthen segregation of duties within the finance function, ensuring clear separation between those who prepare, authorise and record transactions.
What emerges from the commission’s findings is a consistent pattern: governance failure at the top cascading into operational breakdown across multiple domains.
The report links poor oversight to weak implementation of audit findings, inadequate monitoring by the Ministry, and failure to enforce existing legal frameworks.
It also identifies gaps in training and capacity, recommending mandatory governance training for councillors and management every two years.
Standing Orders, last updated in 2006, are flagged as outdated and in need of revision to reflect current governance demands.
Even minute-taking practices are scrutinised, with the commission calling for structured templates capturing decisions, responsibilities and timelines.
The commission emphasises challenges in spatial management, including the rise of unplanned settlements and weak enforcement of building control has had tangible consequences for Hlatikulu’s development trajectory.
In that light, it recommends integrating the Town Planning Scheme into development planning, reviewing the Integrated Development Plan, and strengthening coordination between institutions.
There is also a clear emphasis on community relations.
Residents’ grievances, ranging from land disputes to service delivery concerns, are not treated as peripheral complaints but as indicators of deeper systemic failure and on that account, the commission calls for formal customer care policies, complaints management systems and improved engagement with ratepayers.
The Zandile Dlamini-chaired Commission completed its work and submitted its report to the minister.
The question now is whether the ministry will act, and how quickly.
