Times Of Swaziland: NAPSAWU CHALLENGES FIRE CFO'S APPOINTMENT

NAPSAWU CHALLENGES FIRE CFO'S APPOINTMENT
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Kwanele Dlamini on 02/04/2025 09:10:00


MBABANE – NAPSAWU says the reappointed Chief Fire Officer (CFO), Luke Lushaba,
reached retirement age in 2022 and his appointment to the position is allegedly
irregular.
On behalf of officers of the Eswatini National Fire, Rescue and Emergency
Services (ENFRES), the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union
(NAPSAWU) has since filed an urgent application in the Industrial Court.  The
union is challenging Lushaba’s appointment to the position of CFO in view of
the fact that he has already reached the retirement age of 60 years. In the
papers filed by the union, it prays for an order declaring the appointment of
Lushaba as irregular and or ultra vires.
Alternatively, the union wants the court to declare that Lushaba is retired, not
a public officer and is ineligible to be appointed into any public office by
virtue of Section 27 of the Public Service Act. Pending determination of the
matter in court, the union is seeking interim orders staying the operation of
the letter of appointment issued by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) on March
20, 2025, with immediate effect and to interdict Lushaba from discharging duties
in the position of CFO pending its determination.
Msimeto Malindzisa, the Deputy General Secretary of NAPSAWU, who is also an
employee of ENFRES, stated in the court papers that the purpose of the court
application is to seek a declaratory order against the allegedly irregular
appointment of Lushaba, who is retired, back into civil service to occupy the
position of CFO in terms of a letter of appointment issued by the CSC on March
20, 2025.  “Further reason the appointment is being challenged is on the basis
that the Civil Service Commission is now acting beyond powers bestowed to it by
the Constitution of the kingdom,” said Malindzisa.
“The Fire and Emergency officers gave a clear mandate to the union to
institute proceedings pursuant to learning that Mr Luke Lushaba has been
unilaterally appointed by the Civil Service Commission into the office of chief
fire officer yet he is retired or is a retiree. The criteria of appointing a
retiree remains unknown.”  The veracity of these allegations is still to be
tested in court. The CSC is yet to file its answering papers. The union is
represented by Meluleki Ndlangamandla of MLK Ndlangamandla Attorneys.
Retirement
According to the union, Lushaba attained the age of 60 years, which in terms of
the Public Service Act of 2018 is an age of retirement. Malindzisa said this
occurred in 2022 when he was to take up his retirement in February 2022.  “It
is a fact that Mr Lushaba did take up his retirement in February 2022, but was
appointed on a two-year contract. The two-year contract lapsed and it was
extended, to which the extension elapsed on March 22, 20205,” submitted
Malindzisa.
According to Malindzisa, pursuant to the lapse of the extension of Lushaba’s
appointment, on March 22, 2025, the CSC allegedly did not issue an advertisement
for a vacancy. “It never called upon internal applications to be submitted to
it for a vacant position in the civil service for the position of chief fire
officer. On Monday March 24, 2025, the union learnt through internal social
media, which was obtained by officers under the Fire and Emergency Services, who
are members of the union, that Mr Luke Lushaba, who attained the age of 60 in
2022 had been abruptly and unilaterally appointed as the chief fire officer by
the Civil Service Commission through a letter dated March 20, 2025,”
Malindzisa informed the court.
He argued that the appointment of government officials is governed by the
Schemes of Service,  General Orders,  Public Service Act and more recently the
Fire Act, in particular for the appointment of CFO. He said further to these
legal instruments, the CSC is bestowed with the power to employ or appoint in
terms of the Constitution within civil service public officers, not retirees.
These instruments, according to Malindzisa, are the only legal instruments that
bestow and regulate the appointment, promotion and secondment of public officers
into office, including anyone who may be appointed to the position of CFO by the
CSC.
“One aspect that is succinct in all these legal instruments that I have
mentioned above is the fact that the age of retirement in the civil service is
60 and that position has not been amended by any instrument as such it remains
valid and in force to date,” Malindzisa pointed out. “I submit that the
Civil Service Commission is in breach of the laid down procedure on/how vacant
positions in the civil service are to be filled, in particular that there should
be either an internal advertisement for a vacant post and or an external
advertisement for a vacant post,” he alleged.
He further alleged that the CSC is in breach of those entrenched procedures that
regulate how a position has to be filled and as well as breached the provisions
of the General Orders and the provisions of the Fire Act and the Public Service
Act. “It went on to unilaterally, without advertising and without following
any of the laid down procedure and law, appoint Mr. Luke Lushaba into the
position of chief fire officer. On the basis of this flagrant disregard and
contravention laid down procedures, entrenched provision of the legal instrument
that I have set out above that then the union, being mandated by its fully paid
up members, to wit Fire and Emergency Services personnel, has approached this
honourable court for the order sought, in particular, to impugn the irregular
act by the Civil Service Commission of appointing Mr Luke Lushaba contrary to
the legal instruments that I have set out above, in particular the Public
Service Act,” reads NAPSAWU’s papers. The matter will be argued on April 10,
2025.