By Musa Mdluli

MBABANE:Ncamiso Ntshalitshali, the Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) might no-longer be afforded the whole day before responding to Swaziland News questionnaires after he betrayed editor Zweli Martin Dlamini on Tuesday.

This publication was in the process of publishing a story about emaSwati who were questioning the whereabouts of about R50million already paid by Status Capital Building Society (SCBS) permanent member Dave Van Niekerk, the questionnaire was sent to the CEO through Communications Officer Nokwanda Dlamini.

The Eswatini citizens who invested their money wanted to know when will they receive their monies after reading in the Swaziland News about an interview where Niekerk confirmed paying part of the money.

But FSRA Communications Officer Nokwanda Dlamini told the editor to negotiate with his journalist to put the story on hold while “the CEO prepares responses, the editor agreed to wait for the whole day on Tuesday”.

The CEO and his Communications Officer subsequently forwarded a Public Notice directed to all the media houses instead of responding to direct questions regarding the matter.

“I am of the view that, the CEO is arrogant and next time, we will give him only ten minutes before responding and if he fails we will write that he did not respond. As the media, we are always rushing to publish news and if you make us to wait for the whole day and then release a Public Notice, that’s huge disrespect to the work we are doing. How can we investigate a story, collect all the evidence and then, because we want to be fair to you and your institution, give you the whole day to respond, only for you to release a Public Notice clarifying issues and trying to neutralize our story. Next time we will give him a few minutes and see if he will have time to draft a Public Notice,” said the editor.

The editor warned public figures to remember that, “affording the other party an opportunity to respond is part of journalism ethics” but, that does not mean, public figures must frustrate the dissemination of news with an intention to cover-up critical information and evade accountability.