Times Of Swaziland: MANGOLOLO MEMBER TEACHER CHUCKED OUT OF MEET

MANGOLOLO MEMBER TEACHER CHUCKED OUT OF MEET
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BY STANLEY KHUMALO on 01/12/2021 08:53:00


MANZINI – A SNAT member, who is also an executive constituent of Mangololo
Eswatini, was chucked out of the teachers’ association workshop.
SNAT is the Swaziland National Association of Teachers – a teachers’ union
that is said to be striving to improve the professional socio-economic status of
teachers, enhance collective bargaining for teachers and encourage maximum
participation and dynamic provision of quality education to the learner and
emaSwati at large. On the other hand, Mangololo Eswatini is a movement against
the idea of multiparties and it was formed in August this year following the
political unrest in the kingdom wherein some citizens were calling for political
reforms and a new political dispensation.
Representative
The teacher, who is a SNAT representative for the Manzini Branch at Lozitha
Primary School and also the organising secretary of Mangololo, is Sikelela
Mhlanga. He was part of a workshop held at the SNAT Centre. According to
impeccable sources, when Mhlanga entered the hall where the workshop was being
held, some members of his branch started singing a political song. However, as
they sang, it was gathered that they altered the lyrics to target Mhlanga.
Seeing that this was happening, it was gathered that a committee member of the
Manzini Branch called him out of the meeting as they noted that the situation
would get out of hand. Mhlanga also confirmed that he was part of the meeting.
However, he said some members of his branch were not happy with his affiliation
with Mangololo.
The organising secretary said this took him by surprise as he did not expect his
involvement with Mangololo to clash with SNAT. He said his understanding was
that democracy was anchored around freedom of people to choose from a variety.
Following this incident, Mhlanga said: “I’m yet to decide my future with
SNAT as I was of the view that these organisations don’t clash. There are
people who are part of political parties and they are not discriminated
against.”
On the other hand, Chairman of the Manzini Branch Muzi Mkhontfo confirmed the
incident. He said they had to remove Mhlanga from the branch’s WhatsApp  group
due to the nature of some unkind words that were being directed at him. “We
tried to explain to the members to be as democratic as possible,” Mkhontfo
said.
Workshop
He said Mhlanga ended up being offered transport fare as he could not proceed in
partaking in the workshop. To this development, Spokesperson of Mangololo
Eswatini Gcina Dlamini said SNAT should be clear on whether they are a political
party or a teachers’ association. He said this would assist in guiding their
member in leaving the association if they were a political party. Dlamini said
their organising secretary was a teacher and he was of the view that SNAT was a
teachers’ association.
Meanwhile, SNAT President Mbongwa Dlamini said the association was not a
political party.  “SNAT is a democratic organisation and we expect our members
to support democratic principles.” He said the association did not mind
whether their members being affiliated with any organisation as long as it
supported their basic principles – democracy. Mbongwa said anyone who
supported something that was against democratic principles was against SNAT.