UNIONS, PS CLASH OVER PETITION DELIVERY

MBABANE – Letters of notification to deliver a petition by public sector associations (PSAs), addressed to the Ministry of Public Service, have ignited a heated exchange between the two parties.

This follows a response by the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service, Sipho Tsabedze, in a letter dated December 6, 2021. The PS was responding to a letter sent by the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), in which they were notifying the ministry of a proposed petition delivery activity next Wednesday. The issues outlined in SNAT’s letter included trade union bashing, workers’ rights violations, police brutality, casualisation of certain professions, including teaching, privatisation of some departments in the public service and the abolishment of some departments. In response to this letter, the PS acknowledged receipt of the letter dated December 3, 2021 and stated that the employer noted that the intended petition delivery would be conducted on a working day and during working hours.

Clarity

“The employer, therefore, seeks clarity from your organisation on how this petition delivery will be conducted since the employer expects all workers to be at their respective duty stations during the times mentioned in the purported notice,” reads part of the response from the PS. Tsabedze further said the issues stated in the notice, in particular trade union bashing and workers’ rights violation, were issues for consultation between SNAT and the employer in terms of a signed recognition agreement. “The employer is of the view that the issue of the casualisation of certain professions had been generalised and government is, therefore, unable to ascertain whether this is an issue peculiar to SNAT,” further read Tsabedze’s response.

The PS further highlighted that government was not aware of any abolishment of a department affecting members of SNAT and in any event, the issue of abolishment of a government department was a bilateral issue for consultation between the employer and the worker organisation concerned in terms of the Constitution of the Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF) of the Government Negotiations Team and the public employee associations.

Unlawful

“Consequently, government is of the view that the intended petition delivery exercise is unlawful and government will approach the Industrial Court to interdict same as the proposed exercise is not provided for in the Recognition Agreement signed between government and SNAT and contrary to the JNF Constitution,” said Tsabedze. Worth noting is that PSAs commonly send letters of notification individually and SNAT’s letter was the first to be received by government.

When reached for comment, Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) Secretary General Mayibongwe Masangane said they had also sent a petition delivery notification to government, though the employer (government) had only responded to SNAT for now. Masangane said the PS’s response was offside because the unions were simply notifying him of the proposed petition delivery, not that they were awaiting any form of response. “There’s no need for his response because these issues have been discussed before but no way forward has been forged as of yet, therefore, we have resorted to delivering a petition demanding for the issues to be addressed,” said Masangane.

He said they were simply informing the principal secretary and him saying that the petition delivery was unlawful in his response letter was news to them. Masangane further said it had become common for the government to label such exercises as unlawful. “If it is in fact unlawful, then they should take the matter to court and a ruling will ascertain whether in fact such an exercise is unlawful. But government tends to exercise powers which are not bestowed on it,” he said.

Delivery

The secretary general further said if all went well, they would be continuing with the delivery of the petition next week. PS Tsabedze was also reached for comment regarding the matter, to which he firstly confirmed that he had in fact responded to the initial letter written by SNAT dated December 3, 2021 on the proposed petition delivery on December 15, 2021. In a post on their Facebook page, The SNAT Platform, SNAT had written that the response by the PS was ‘pompous’. This reporter further asked the PS what his take was on the statement written by SNAT, to which he said SNAT had the right to view situations the way they wanted.

However, he said he did not see how the ministry’s response to SNAT’s initial letter would be viewed as pompous by the association. “I don’t know what that means because that is not how I view that statement,” said Tsabedze. When questioned on why he responded to SNAT’s letter based on statements made by the SWADNU secretary general that the letter was simply a notification and a response was not expected, the PS said they had to respond because when a letter was written to the ministry, a response was typically expected and it was peculiar for an organisation or entity to not want a response.

“I saw it fitting to respond as there are things that we need to address as well highlighted in the notifications which are sent to us,” he said. The PS further said he expected the unionists to be at work next week Wednesday and that a person who would be delivering a petition on the day would be one who was not working. Tsabedze further stated that those who would deliver the petition on the day would not be paid as per the no-work, no-pay rule. SNAT Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini said they had now written another letter in response to the response by the PS.

He further said they were not deterred by the statements from the PS written in his response letter and they would go ahead and deliver the petition. In a letter responding to the PS’s response, the teachers’ association said; “The SNAT NEC (National Executive Committee) acknowledges receipt of your response, dated December 6, 2021. After going through your response, the SNAT NEC wishes to further clarify and contextualise the issues raised.
“The petition delivery that will be conducted on Wednesday (December 15, 2021) at noon will be on trade union bashing (forcing some union members to resign from SNAT) and casualisation of teaching and failure of the Ministry of Public Service to create permanent and pensionable posts for teachers.”

Conducted

The teachers’ union further said the petition delivery would be conducted during working hours as per the labour laws of the country and as per the Recognition Agreement that the SNAT had with the Government of Eswatini. “The former correspondence that was written and delivered to your office on Friday (December 3, 2021) is hereby amended and replaced by this one. The copy of this shall also be served with the Municipal Council of Mbabane as per the Public Order Act. Thanking you in advance for your anticipated cooperation,” read SNAT’s response letter in part. This publication previously reported that the Minister of Public Service, Mabulala Maseko, wanted the Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF) to go back to the roundtable.

This, he said, during a brief meeting with the PSAs at the Ministry of Public Service’s conference room in October 2021. This was a private meeting where the minister had invited PSAs including the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), SNAT, Swaziland Nurses Association (SNA) and Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP). According to a source close to the matter, the minister had invited the PSAs as a courtesy call and wanted to inform them that he was willing to work with them and wanted the talks to resume. The source said the minister particularly highlighted the need for a roundtable as there hadn’t been one since his appointment.

Negotiation

“He requested for the negotiation forum to be opened once again and the long and short of it is that he had called us to announce that the JNF was now active,” said the secretary general. Worth noting is that previously, in an attempt to deliver a petition to the Ministry of Public Service on their grievances and workers issues, the delivery was prohibited by the National Commissioner of Police William Tsitsibala Dlamini, who stated that the nation was advised that the planned march had been prohibited by the national commissioner in terms of Section 9(2),(3)(b) and (6) of the Public Order Act, 12 of 2017, in the interest of national security, public order and safety. 

However, on the day of the march the unionists showed up only for the march to be halted by security forces, which resulted in some people being injured.
It has also been previously reported that the negotiations forum was not active after one of the PSAs was said to not have a locus standi therefore they were not all present to negotiate yet the continuation of talks in the roundtable could only happen once they were all present for the talks.

Review

The much anticipated salary review talks between government and civil servants were left in limbo in March 2021 after the meeting could not take place as SNAGAP had resolved to pull out from the salary review talks. A source close to the matter was quoted as having said that the leaders of the trade union were of the view that it would be a waste of time to go to the roundtable to discuss the issue of the salary review, when government had made it clear to them that it did not have money to implement it. In fact, in that report, the source said; “The plan is to stall everything because government does not want to speak about money.” The source also highlighted that if SNAGAP leadership would not be represented in the JNF or on any other given day, the talks would not take place.  He said this was because there was a standing order which stipulated that the JNF could not be held if one or more of the PSAs members were not represented.

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