Times Of Swaziland: PSAS’ 3 ASSIGNMENTS FOR GOVT

PSAS’ 3 ASSIGNMENTS FOR GOVT
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BY SIBUSISO ZWANE on 04/01/2021 00:27:00


MANZINI – Public sector associations (PSAs) have highlighted three critical
sectors that government needs to attend to immediately in 2021.
The three issues are public service, health and education.
This is according to the end-of-year and new year statements which they issued.
In terms of public service, the PSAs said the country needed to stop escalating
prices of services to the nation during this most difficult period of their
lives.
They said government also needed to provide all necessary equipment for the
workers to deliver.
They said there was a general lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), which
was a must for workers to deliver and be safe from contracting COVID-19.
Testing
Again, they said government needed to roll out compulsory testing in the
workplace.
They argued that the number of ministries and by extension, the number of senior
officials, needed to be reduced.
Their argument was that a lot of money was wasted while paying senior officials
unjustified salaries and allowances.
On the other hand, they said in terms of health, government should renovate
clinics and hospitals.
On top of that, they said it should provide necessary equipment for the fight
against COVID-19.
“Government needs to provide proper housing for nurses. We also want the
availability of drugs in hospitals,” they said.
Moreover, regarding education, they said government should make sure that all
schools were provided with clean running water and proper sanitary facilities.
They said the administration should also prioritise the building of houses for
teachers.
“All schools should have electricity,” they added.
On another note, they said civil servants need to be protected from contracting
COVID-19. Currently, they argued that civil servants were being exposed on a
daily basis to the dreadful COVID-19 pandemic. They added that it should not be
seen as normal to queue for loans by civil servants in savings and credit
co-operatives to cater for their survival.
They said government should adhere to all the conventions it was signatory to.
They said it could not be proper that government continued to sign conventions
just for the fun of it and as window-dressing for the international community.
Therefore, they called for an end to the usage of resources for projects that
had no economic value because they were a waste of the taxpayers’ money. They
said they would continue to call for those in authority to do things the right
way.
“We will continue to fight for the protection of workers and demand better
working conditions and better living conditions,” they emphasised.
In that regard, they said they encouraged their members to continue demanding
that resources be spent on national priorities not just on a selected few.
As contributors to the building of the economy, they said they could not
continue to be silent. They said they were going to be part of those demanding
accountability for the national resources.
“A better society is possible if we all work together to build it,” they
said.
They added that their membership should be counted among those who fought for
change for the benefit of the country’s future generations.