ESWATINI SUMMARY Institution Website Request for information Total score 1. Elections and Boundaries Commission 10 4 14 2. Ministry of Agriculture 4 4 8 3. Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy 8 2 10 4. Ministry of Public Service 6 4 10 5. 6 4 10 6. Municipal Council of Mbabane 15 16 31 7. 13 4 17 9 4 13 Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development National Maize Corporation 8. Public Service Pensions Fund RESEARCH CONCLUSIONS Actions do not match the words of the officials designated to receive and respond to information requests in government and public institutions. This research concludes that a majority of them still find it hard to get rid of the deep-rooted culture of secrecy in the course of their duties. This becomes evident when seven out of the eight public institutions surveyed failed to respond to the researcher’s information requests. Remarkably, at the time of this particular research, all the targeted public institutions were dealing with relevant public issues that they were supposed to explain to citizens. Assessing institution’s openness and transparency, the researcher made sure that he asked them about those issues. As usual, the Principal Secretaries authorised to release information hid behind the excuse of being too busy with the elections to respond to the information requests. Surprisingly, the EBC’s Communications Officer told the researcher to direct the questions to the EBC’s Head of Secretariat, while the NMC’s Marketing and Communications Manager did not bother to respond despite several phone calls. This situation does not appear likely to change any time soon. A majority of officials do not understand their public service role of disseminating information to citizens who need such information in order to make informed decisions and choices on the socioeconomic and political issues that affect them. All this goes to show that there is a great need for stepping up efforts in lobbying parliamentarians to enact the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Bill. THE MOST SECRETIVE PUBLIC INSTITUTION IN ESWATINI THE MOST OPEN PUBLIC INSTITUTION IN ESWATINI The best performing public institution and winner of the 2018 Golden Key Award for the most open public institution in Eswatini is the Municipal Council of Mbabane. RECOMMENDATIONS • As the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Bill promises to be the answer to the deep-rooted culture of secrecy in Eswatini, it is long overdue. MISA Swaziland plans to do the following as a contribution to positive developments with regard to government openness and transparency: • Organise a media workshop on access to information for all the officials designated to receive and respond to information requests in government ministries and public companies; and • Step up MISA’s campaign for access to information by taking advantage of incoming parliamentarians, including: • Making efforts to lobby the parliamentarians, especially the incoming members of the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology Portfolio Committee, to move a motion forcing the Minister of Information, Communication and Technology to table the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Bill within the tenure of the 11th Parliament (2018-2023). Of the eight public institutions that were assessed and evaluated for this particular study, the poorest performing institution and winner of the 2018 Golden Padlock Award for the most secretive public institution in Eswatini is the Ministry of Agriculture. 21