Unions to March on April 12

This will be the second consecutive year in which protests are held on this date. Last year the protests lasted for three days, beginning on April 12 to 14.

This year all civil service unions will take to the streets on April 11 and April 12. Those who will participate are those who are affiliated to NAPSAWU, SNAT, SNA and SNAGAP.

NAPSAWU stands for the National Association of Public Servants and Allied Workers Union while SNAT is the Swaziland National Association of Teachers. SNA is the acronym for the Swaziland Nurses Association and SNAGAP stands for Swaziland National Association of Government Accounts Professionals.

The leadership of all these four unions met yesterday at SNAT centre where a resolution was taken to protest to push for 4.5 per cent salary increments.

The President of SNAT, Sibongile Mazibuko said all public servants will leave their posts and hit the streets on the two days to put pressure on government. She said next week there will be numerous meetings which will be a build up to the mass action.

"On April 11-12 there will be mass demonstrations and all regions of the country will see some action. Public servants have to identify places where the meetings will be held at venues close to cities. In the rural areas, the RA offices will be used to hold the build-up meetings," Mazibuko said.

She said they, however, still harbo-ured some hope that government would meet their demand and award them the increment before the proposed strike action. The strike will see over 30 000 civil servants taking to the streets to demand the 4.5 per cent salary increments. Mazibuko also said with the 14 percent increase by the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA), the buying power had also dropped by the same percentage.

"All civil servants should be on the lookout for latest developments on the strike through the media, Facebook and other networking sites," Mazibuko said. Civil servants have not been given salary increments by government for the period 2011/12.

When called last night, the Minister of Labour and Social Security Lutfo Dlamini directed questions to the Government Spokesperson Percy Simelane whose cell phone rang unanswered.

Comments

Some of us don't belong to any of these unions but we will be marching on that day to plead for the removal of Circular no.1, 2010 and the VAT which is making everyone more poor. So the numbers will be huge, very very huge!
Mar 22, 2012, 6:15 AM, Mandla (mandla@yahoo.com)

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