STAY AT HOME FROM TODAY - SNAT TO TEACHERS

SNAT President Mbongwa Dlamini (L) explaining a point to media houses during the press conference while SNAT Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini looks on. (Pic: Sibusiso Zwane)

MANZINI - Stay at home! This is what teachers in the Kingdom of Eswatini were told by the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) amid the spread of coronavirus, which is also known as COVID-19. According to the teachers’ union, their members should not go to work from today until further notice.

The teachers’ union made this statement during a press conference, which was held at SNAT Centre yesterday afternoon.
The union was represented by President Mbongwa Dlamini and Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini. They advised teachers in the Kingdom of Eswatini to invoke Section 18 (2) of the Occupational Health and Safety No.9 of 2001, which reads: “An employee shall have a right to remove himself or herself from danger when such a worker has reasonable justification to believe there is imminent and serious risk to his/her safety and health.”

Disappointed

The president said they took this decision because they were disappointed in the way government was responding to the issue of coronavirus. He said according to their analysis, government was failing to be proactive. He said this was because the virus was first detected in China and government knew that it would eventually spread into the kingdom, but it allegedly failed to prepare itself for the pandemic.
On the same note, the secretary general said as a teachers’ union, they drew their conclusion against the backdrop that the country’s health system was incapacitated to deal with the pandemic. He said it would be folly of them not to caution their members about same.

Again, he said before they were teachers, they were members of the society and mingled with their compatriots, day in and day out. He added that coronavirus thrived well in cold climates and that low temperatures amplified the pestilence.
“This means as we are now moving towards the winter season, the pandemic will gain momentum,” the secretary general said.
Once more, he said due to the shortage of safe drinking and running water in most rural communities where about 910 000 of the emaSwati live, the effects of this pandemic would be far-reaching. “It is the poor people who will be hit hardest since 819 000 emaSwati live below the breadline,” the secretary general said.

The teachers’ union president added that the issue of washing hands, which government had been emphasising, was not practical in some areas and schools in the country, especially in the rural areas where there was no running water.
“There is also no money to buy the water because government has not released free primary education (FPE) grants,” the president said.

He also said as a union, they wondered how schools would cope as government, through the Ministry of Health, emphasised that people should wash their hands at least every 15 minutes. He said according to their analysis, this meant that teachers could spend the whole day monitoring pupils as they queued at the taps to wash their hands. “Our lives and that of our children depend on us. So, we cannot wait for government and that is why we are acting,” the president said. He said by invoking the said section of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, they were trying to protect their lives as teachers, pupils and families.

On the same note, the president urged parents to protect themselves and their children by keeping them at home until further notice.
“Do not expose yourselves and your children,” the president said while mentioning that Section 18 (2) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act No.9 of 2001 did not apply only to teachers, but to all workers.

He said this Act gave workers a right to life more than employment. He said the Act also gave workers a responsibility to protect their lives. He said this was because it allowed them to remove themselves from a dangerous situation at work even if the employer had not said anything about it.

The president added that as a union, they would not negotiate a right, but would demand it. On that note, he assured teachers that no one would penalise them for removing themselves from work if they had seen something that posed serious risks to their safety and health.

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