GOVT PAYS IDLE TEACHERS AS SITC SHUTS DOWN

SITEKI – For close to 10 months, government has been paying salaries to idle teachers following the shutdown of SITC.

SITC is the Siteki Industrial Training Centre, a vocational training centre which is a sister institution to Manzini Industrial Training Centre (MITC).
The institution reportedly shut down in May last year, reportedly due to disagreements between government and the Swaziland Skills Centres, the holding entity of SITC.

According to sources close to the institution’s administration, the centre was forced to shut down after its coffers ran dry due to a decision by government to withhold its annual subvention.

Since then, the institution which offered several programmes in agriculture, sewing, motor mechanic and welding, ceased to operate. Staff members who were on the institution’s payroll, were forced to stop reporting for work since there were no funds for their remuneration, a former staff member said. However, about eight teachers employed by government, who were attached to the institution, have remained within its premises.

The teachers, who were referred to as instructors at the centre, are employed by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC).
“They are still waiting for a way forward from their employer. Only those who were employed by the institution have left,” said a former instructor at the centre. The teachers are said to be willing to work but there were no students following that the institution did not admit new students at the beginning of the year.

Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Education and Training, Dr Sibongile Mtshali, confirmed that disagreements between government and the Swaziland Skills Centre were the reason behind the shutdown of the institution.

“The issues which caused MITC to shut down are similar to those which forced SITC to also close shop,” Mtshali said.
She added that government had invited directors of the Swaziland Skills Centre to the negotiation table but the directors had allegedly been reluctant.
“We have since decided that, since they are a private entity, they must go ahead and operate on their own,” Mtshali stated.

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