Times Of Swaziland: CIVIL SERVANTS: WE WON’T STOP PARTICIPATING IN POLITICS

CIVIL SERVANTS: WE WON’T STOP PARTICIPATING IN POLITICS
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BY SIBUSISO ZWANE on 13/12/2021 08:45:00


MANZINI – “Not this time around and not ever, government must just
forget!”
This is what a majority of civil servants are saying regarding government’s
move to ensure that they do not participate in political issues and activities,
mainly being members of political parties. They say they are prepared to fight
tooth and nail to ensure that they enjoy their constitutional rights; freedom of
speech and assembly. In fact, they said they would not allow government to stop
them from participating in political issues and activities as per its agenda,
which it had tabled to unions under the banner of public sector associations
(PSAs), during their ongoing bilateral meetings, which started a fortnight ago.
They said the agenda had three items; review of collective agreements between
the unions and government, discuss the participation of civil servants in
politics - mainly political parties and the conversion of the Eswatini National
Provident Fund (ENPF) into a national public pension. The four unions under the
banner of PSAs are; the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union
(NAPSAWU), Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Swaziland
Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU), which government also refers to as Swaziland
Nurses Association (SNA), and the Swaziland National Government Accounting
Personnel (SNAGAP).
Some leaders of the aforementioned associations revealed that by including the
issue of participation of civil servants in politics, government was on a move
to try and invoke the Public Service Act of 2018. They said this Act had a
section which prohibited civil servants from participating in politics, mainly
being members of political parties. However, they said in their analysis, they
found that this move was aimed at compromising the envisaged process of the
anticipated all-inclusive national dialogue. Therefore, they said as per the
country’s Constitution of 2005, which was the supreme law; they had freedom of
speech and association.
According to their understanding and analysis of the Constitution, they said its
supremacy clause stated that it superseded any other conflicting laws.
Therefore, they argued that since the Public Service Act of 2018 was in conflict
with the Constitution in terms of freedom of speech and assembly, the former
took precedence  over the latter. When asked what does the move by government
mean to the anticipated all-inclusive dialogue, Sikelela Dlamini, the Secretary
General of SNAT, said it would surely compromise the envisaged negotiation
process for the national dialogue. He said this was because civil servants were
members of the society as well and they had to partake in the dialogue as
members of their various political organisations.
Blunder
“The promulgation of the Public Service Act of 2018 was a great legislative
blunder by government,” he said. He said it was unfortunate that as public
servants, they had submitted against the inclusion of such clauses (which will
be against the Constitution). He said they made the submissions while the Act
was at a Bill’s stage, but government allegedly decided not to implement their
recommendations. He emphasised that the clause on political affiliation in the
Act was violating the inalienable rights to freedom of association as members of
society. Again, he said it was also against Convention no 87 of Freedom of
Association and Assembly.
Convention 87 is an International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention of 1948.
It is also referred to as Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to
Organise Convention. Thereafter, he said as SNAT, they were currently building
capacity to understand and know their rights. On the same note, SWADNU Secretary
General Mayibongwe Masangane said the action taken by government to try to
prohibit them from partaking in political activities was a gross violation of
their rights. He said this was because they would be barred from contributing in
paving their own future. “We need to be part to the dialogue,” Masangane
said.
Thereafter, the unionist said the problem was that government allowed workers to
participate in politics that supported only the current political order,
Tinkhundla System of government. Again, he said it was unfortunate that the
country had other laws that were totally against the Supreme law of the land. He
said they believed that government should establish its laws and general orders
in accordance with the Constitution. Therefore, he said as a union, together
with their allies, they would do all and everything to defend their rights. He
said this could be done by engaging in campaigns, protest actions and testing
the courts when the need arose.
Even NAPSAWU said it referred the matter of participation of civil servants in
politics to the Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF) because they wanted to address it
with the other public sector associations. Meanwhile, SNAGAP President Eric
Ndlovu said as a union, they would ask not to comment until they got a draft of
the matter from government.  It is worth noting that so far, NAPSAWU and SWADNU
met with government over the matter but it was not discussed. SWADNU asked that
its concerns should be addressed first, while NAPSAWU said it should be
discussed at the JNF. Meanwhile, SNAGAP said it would wait for government to
table a draft of the matter. On the other hand, bilateral with SNAT had been
postponed twice.