We signed Google agreement – Commerce Minister

For starters, signing the agreement with Google was not a walk in the park. It was hard and signing it means a lot for this country.

These are the words of the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade Manqoba Khumalo, who has moved to provide clarity and context in the agreement the country signed with Google, through the ministry of information communication and technology (ICT).

Concerned with what might end up being the world view of how this country treats prospective investors, and what Khumalo termed to be harassment of potential investors, the minister has jumped to his colleague Savannah Maziya’s side in confirming that an agreement with Google is in fact in place.

“That the country has a memorandum of agreement with Google is in itself a major milestone, that we should be celebrating,” said the minister, who stated that as minister responsible for finding foreign and direct investment and business in the country, he had worked with his counterpart in this deal and would support her throughout.

The minister said this during an interview while on his working trip with His Majesty King Mswati III, who attended the Organisation of the African Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) held in Equatorial Guinea. Khumalo said he would not stand by and watch as the controversy undid solid progress in getting Google on the table of possible investment in Eswatini, which he believed the country had not just worked hard but had made considerable strides getting an agreement signed.

“The gist of my concern is the harassment of potential investors, especially this investor, who is strategic in our quest to interpret His Majesty’s vision of digitising our economy as well as attracting entities that turnover billions of Emalangeni,” said the minister of the fallout on the Google MoU.

For his part, he felt the issue had distracted from the real conversation of how important it is for an agreement of this nature for the country and what the possibility of bringing such a big tech company into the country means for the desperate young people who are looking for jobs.

“Yet, here we are casting aspersions of such an important milestone for the country and scaring investors from ever looking our direction if this is how we treat possible investors,” he said.

The minister emphasised that the bigger issue was that the country had achieved something to bring Google on to the conversation of looking to invest in the region, let alone Eswatini – and that they had signed an agreement to this extent.

However, this is far from being a notable achievement, instead it has become the subject of controversy following Prime Minister Russell Dlamini’s comments in Senate last week where he distanced himself and Cabinet from such an arrangement.

This put doubt into the existence of such an agreement, despite that the ICT minister had publicly announced it. Minister Khumalo told this newspaper that he was part of the process to bring this agreement across the line and that it was not an easy thing.

“The (Google) were difficult, which is why we thought to go for the MoU, with our idea being to just explore the potential for business,” he revealed.

He further disclosed that the agreement was presented to Cabinet – and that everyone was present when this was done.

“It was approved at Cabinet. We were all there. Sonkhe sasikhona in that meeting,” the minister said, matter-of-factly.

Khumalo explained that the MoU is a non-contractual agreement that was meant to explore the possibility of further engagement.

“It is only after we have explored that a contractual agreement would have been signed. What’s important here is that Google themselves are looking for a country to make their hub – especially in the region and we thought we stand a good chance for this opportunity. Yet here we are fighting each other instead of working towards achieving that.”

He further added; “Minister of ICT and I worked on this deal and we were very excited when we got this lead to get the MoU signed.”

Khumalo said the agreement with Google aligned with His Majesty’s call for finding 10 big investors to grow our economy, which he said he was finding it difficult to watch from the side-lines as this is destroyed.

‘Google presented before King in New York’

MINISTER of Commerce Manqoba Khumalo has revealed that Google representatives committed before His Majesty to exploring possibilities of investing in the country during an investor conference last year in September.

The business summit was hosted by the country through the ICT and commerce ministries as part of a strategy to present the Eswatini case, attended by Google, NASA and Starlink among a few big tech companies invited to take part.

In that conference, one of the companies that were there and committed to explore areas of collaboration with the country was Google.

“In September last year, they spoke in front of His Majesty and made the commitment,” said the minister.

The meeting was handled by the ICT Minister Savannah Maziya while Commerce Minister Manqoba Khumalo took care of a second business seminar held later that day.

“We worked with the ICT minister on the conferences and worked out a strategy of how to handle these two events. This is when Google made a commitment to explore an agreement with Eswatini,” Khumalo said.

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As commerce minister, Khumalo said he fully supports the ICT minister in this arrangement and in bringing investors into the country.

“It would, therefore, be impossible for me to keep quiet on this agreement, and I must say that I am very concerned at the turn this issue has taken. It sends a very bad image of the country and will discourage any further investor from looking our direction,” cautioned the minister over the claims that this agreement is not legitimate.

The minister confirmed that the MoU was signed off by the attorney general and it represents a milestone for the country.

“If we do this to Google, then who will want to take us seriously? What are we saying about other potential agreements?”

The minister also moved to reassure the nation that there is nothing illegitimate Google would get involved in, and that any concerns about them stealing from a country are way off the mark.

“That is just a gross mischaracterisation of who these people are. So far they only wanted to explore or assess the possibility of investment in the country,” he emphasised.

“I have been part of this journey and I am proud of being part of it,” the minister stated of the agreement. “The mere fact we have such an agreement is a milestone.”

Have no fears about Google

MINISTER of Commerce Manqoba Khumalo has assured the nation that Google can never be associated with anything unethical and any chances of the big tech company stealing data from Eswatini are far from reality.

Concerned with the negativity associated with the memorandum of agreement signed with Google, the minister said he felt he had to come out in support of the work the ICT Minister Savannah Maziya had done getting this deal done.

He said the concern raised about any data theft was not even remotely possible, emphasising the fact that the engagement with Google at this point was exploratory and that there were still a lot of work to be done to get a contractual agreement in place.

“Google is an upstanding company that upholds the highest ethical standards and there’s no reason to think they would compromise our country,” he said.

He revealed that he was standing up for collective responsibility in confirming that such an agreement is in place with Google and that Cabinet was aware of it.

He said he felt the negativity surrounding this agreement stood to harm His Majesty’s vision and therefore any future investment prospects.

“The MoU exists, but it is not a contract and such a claim is completely baseless and an affront to the potential investor.

“I hope this is the last time such a thing happens to a potential investor.”

The minister also reassured Google not to read anything into the controversy, saying that this was not accurate picture of the reality on the ground.

“I want them to invest in Eswatini, and for that reason, I am very defensive of the work we have done so far,” he added.