GOVT INTERVENES IN SMAWU IMPASSE

MANZINI – United they bargain, divided they fight. More controversy abounds as the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) recognised one of the warring factions in the Swaziland Manufacturing and Allied Workers Union (SMAWU) and disowned the other.

TUCOSWA issued a statement to the labour commissioner, the business community and the media saying the congress had made an effort to bring the two factions of SMAWU together with the intention to bring a lasting solution to their differences, and came out with a decision to recognise the faction led by Samuel Dlamini.

This is at the expense of the faction led by Justice Mtsetfwa.
The Mtsetfwa-led faction has held the reins of SMAWU for years, but came to a bumpy patch last year when the union became embroiled in court battles over its affiliation to the Amalgamation of Trade Unions in Swaziland (ATUSWA). When the Industrial Court declared that SMAWU was not under ATUSWA, the former broke into two ranks, one siding with ATUSWA and the other insisting they wanted nothing to do with ATUSWA.

The side that sympathised with ATUSWA held elections in December last year, where Samuel Dlamini and others were elected the new National Executive Committee (NEC) of SMAWU. Meanwhile, the other faction, led by Mtsetfwa did not participate in the elections and insisted they were still in office.

The power struggles have prompted the intervention of TUCOSWA, which is the federation for workers’ unions. Acting Secretary General Muzikayise Mhlanga said on February 26, 2019, TUCOSWA invited both sets of the National Executive Committee members to a meeting that was scheduled to take place last week Thursday at 10am.

“The set of executives is the one that was elected in 2011, which oversaw the amalgamation process involving SMAWU, and other unions to form ATUSWA, whose term of office should have expired in 2015, and the other one being the NEC that was elected late 2018 after the Industrial Court of Appeal Judgment under case No. 06/2018.”

absence

“The Samuel Dlamini-led NEC attended the meeting while the Justice Mtsetfwa led-NEC did not attend. At about 11am, the Samuel Dlamini-led NEC requested that the meeting proceed in the absence of the other team since they had not requested for a postponement.”

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: