JUNIOR COPS DEMAND TO SEE PS, LOCK CABINET GATE

MBABANE – Locked out.

Feeling ignored, Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) Police Staff Association members locked the Cabinet gate, yesterday. About 14 junior officers who were driving in their private cars ascended the hospital hill to fetch responses regarding  the implementation of Phase II of the police and Correctional officers’ salary restructuring exercise of 2014.

In October, the REPS and His Majesty’s Correctional Services junior officers took part in a march to deliver petitions at the Cabinet offices over the Phase II implementation. The police junior officers visited the Cabinet once again yesterday to get responses on same after that nothing had been communicated to them for close to a month now.

The officers were attended to by a senior official who reported that the Principal Secretary (PS) Bertram Stewart whom they had demanded to see was out of office on official duties. The senior officer stated that the phase II salary restructuring exercise was still being addressed.

However, the junior officers stated that they would wait for the PS, but upon realising that he was not arriving they locked the gate while the Cabinet police officers were not looking. The junior officers who spent about one and a half hours at the gate did not believe that the PS was not around.  Eventually, they left just before the thunderstorm began, outsmarting the police officers on guard at the gate and locking the entrance.

Just a few minutes after the junior officers had left, the police officers manning the Cabinet gate discovered that it was locked with a padlock. This was after a car belonging to one of the employees wanted to exit. The driver then used another alternative gate. The PS’s car also arrived and he could not enter as the gate was locked. A senior officer attended to Stewart and reported what had happened advising that he should also use the alternative gate, which he did.

In an interview with the Police Staff Association Secretary General, Sergeant Dumisile Khumalo, she said following the delivery of their concerns over the Phase II implementation, they have been ignored. Khumalo said they delivered their concerns which were in a petition form to three other ministries; Public Service, Finance and Justice and Constitutional Affairs and none of them responded.

“We resorted to come to the Cabinet offices in few numbers to fetch the responses,” said the SG. She stated that what was painful was that nobody wanted to address them, hence they would be giving a report back to the other junior officers and inform them about the challenges they had encountered. Khumalo said this was with the sole intention to go to His Majesty King Mswati III to inform him about the challenges as they suspect foul play with the senior officers.

She said their wish was to see the King before he went to seclusion as they were aware that preparations for Incwala were underway. Khumalo said they were bitter with what was going on at the Police Headquarters where senior police officers were using their authority to threaten to fire them. This, she said had created animosity. The SG stated that they needed to meet His Majesty soon as they were very bitter. Khumalo said junior officers were feeling the brunt of being killed while on duty, yet government continued to ignore them.

The SG said they had noted with concern the actions of the senior officers who did not bother to respond when a shooting incident happened at Ludzidzini recently where a junior offer was attacked. Khumalo stated that when a senior officer was attacked they responded to assist. When sought for comment on how far the issue of the phase II implementation was, the PS said he could not disclose anything to the media. Stewart said the press should question the junior officers and not him.

Meanwhile Government Spokesperson, Alpheus Nxumalo said: “Junior officers are assets to us." There were claims by junior police officers that Nxumalo had promised that they would receive their phase II salary, according to the Police Staff Association Secretary General Sergeant Dumsile Khumalo. Khumalo said Nxumalo told them that they were assets and not terrorists.

When reached for comments about the statements, Nxumalo said indeed the junior officers were assets like all other ranks of the police service. However, he said on the issue of salary adjustments, these were being handled and negotiated with the Ministry of Public Service.  

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