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UNPAID SALARIES BY GOVT

21/05/2019 00:35:00 The Editor

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Sir,

Allow me to voice out my frustrations over the way we are treated as contract employees of the Government of Eswatini. I am currently employed on contract and I have been given a contract of a year three times. But the situation right now is so sad that one cannot even afford to buy a sweet.

It’s now the fourth month without receiving any payment from my employer, government. I am now living in fear since I owe everyone who is close to me and shylocks.

It is hard even to go to work because I cannot afford to board public transport from my rented flat to work, hence I use lifts. Moreover, renting the flat is no longer affordable and my landlord has given me a week to vacate her premises.

Stomach

The worst thing is that the stomach is not owed. You cannot just say you will eat after they process your payment. You need energy to work but with me the situation is different, I am expected to work and deliver on an empty stomach. People are now tired of helping me and my dependents.

God

I was made to believe that our countrymen and leaders obeyed God at a younger age, hence they even swear using the Bible yet they do not follow it. The Bible clearly states that it is a sin not to pay your servants, hence Deuteronomy 24: 14-15 reads; “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns.

“You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it; so that he will not cry against you to the Lord and it becomes sin in you.”

Why is government oppressing me in such a cruel manner? What have I done wrong and to who? I really do not believe that processes of paying an employee can take more than four months.
I believe that being not paid your salary is a very sensitive issue, then I wonder why the delays?

Anonymous