COP AWAY FOR 10 MONTHS WINS SALARY CASE

MBABANE – The Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) has agreed to pay salary arrears of the police officer who did not report to work for 10 months to seek treatment for his swelling private parts.

Kenneth Mshiyeni Banda left his workplace for South Africa to seek traditional medical attention in April 2019 and returned to his duty station in February 2020. 

He then decided to seek legal recourse after the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) stopped payment of his salary.

The High Court has since endorsed a consent order where it was agreed between the parties that the national commissioner of police and the principal secretary in the Ministry of Public Service should compute and immediately pay Banda’s outstanding salary calculated from February 2020 to December 4, 2020.

In his application, Banda claimed that: “Just before I went away for treatment, I approached the officer in charge of Lavumisa Police Station at his residence and I stripped naked to show him the nature of my sickness.”

Banda informed the court that in April 2019, he developed a terrible sickness which saw his private parts develop into uncontrollable wounds.

He claimed that the reason he did not report to work was because he was being  attended to by a traditional healer in the Republic of South Africa.

 In motivating his application, Banda submitted that so severe was the sickness such that he could hardly walk as the wounds were extremely painful.

Stable

“After I left my workstation to seek traditional medical attention in April 2019, I became stable in 2020 and returned to my duty station in February 2020. I wish to state that I have not fully recovered as I am still undergoing medical treatment attention under the observation of my traditional healer,” alleged Banda.

He went on to inform the court that when he left his workplace to seek medical help, the national commissioner of police immediately stopped his salary without allegedly following the due process of law. 

“On returning to my workstation in February 2020, my superiors allowed me back at work pending a disciplinary hearing that would be instituted against me for unauthorised absence from work,” averred the applicant (Banda).

He narrated to the court that indeed, during the month of March 2020, he was charged for contravening Section 49, read with Section 59 of the Police Act.  Banda pointed out that the disciplinary hearing commenced in June 2020 and so far, six witnesses had been paraded on behalf of the employer. He said he had also prepared five witnesses to lead at the disciplinary to substantiate the nature of his sickness and the fact that he could not be reasonably expected to be at work while facing the ailment which made him unable to even walk.

Banda claimed that the disciplinary hearing against him was suspended and the reason given to him was that there was no problem to ferry the members of the police Board appointed by the national commissioner of police to preside over his matter.

“Ever since my return to work in February 2020, I have been continuously working for the Government of Eswatini without pay.  I have been working without pay for the past eight months,” contended Banda.

Banda was represented by a lawyer from B.S Dlamini and Associates, while appearing for the national commissioner and the other respondents were lawyers from the chamber of the attorney general.

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