PSAS’ 3 ASSIGNMENTS FOR GOVT

MANZINI – Public sector associations (PSAs) have highlighted three critical sectors that government needs to attend to immediately in 2021.

The three issues are public service, health and education. 

This is according to the end-of-year and new year statements which they issued.

In terms of public service, the PSAs said the country needed to stop escalating prices of services to the nation during this most difficult period of their lives. 

They said government also needed to provide all necessary equipment for the workers to deliver. 

They said there was a general lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), which was a must for workers to deliver and be safe from contracting COVID-19. 

Testing 

Again, they said government needed to roll out compulsory testing in the workplace.

They argued that the number of ministries and by extension, the number of senior officials, needed to be reduced. 

Their argument was that a lot of money was wasted while paying senior officials unjustified salaries and allowances.

On the other hand, they said in terms of health, government should renovate clinics and hospitals. 

On top of that, they said it should provide necessary equipment for the fight against COVID-19.

“Government needs to provide proper housing for nurses. We also want the availability of drugs in hospitals,” they said. 

Moreover, regarding education, they said government should make sure that all schools were provided with clean running water and proper sanitary facilities. They said the administration should also prioritise the building of houses for teachers.

“All schools should have electricity,” they added.

On another note, they said civil servants need to be protected from contracting COVID-19. Currently, they argued that civil servants were being exposed on a daily basis to the dreadful COVID-19 pandemic. They added that it should not be seen as normal to queue for loans by civil servants in savings and credit co-operatives to cater for their survival.

They said government should adhere to all the conventions it was signatory to. 

They said it could not be proper that government continued to sign conventions just for the fun of it and as window-dressing for the international community. 

Therefore, they called for an end to the usage of resources for projects that had no economic value because they were a waste of the taxpayers’ money. They said they would continue to call for those in authority to do things the right way. 

“We will continue to fight for the protection of workers and demand better working conditions and better living conditions,” they emphasised.

In that regard, they said they encouraged their members to continue demanding that resources be spent on national priorities not just on a selected few. 

As contributors to the building of the economy, they said they could not continue to be silent. They said they were going to be part of those demanding accountability for the national resources. 

“A better society is possible if we all work together to build it,” they said.

They added that their membership should be counted among those who fought for change for the benefit of the country’s future generations.

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