MBONGWA MUST SHAPE UP OR SHIP OUT – BENNETT

MBABANE – Businessman and former Senator Walter Bennett says SNAT President Mbongwa Dlamini must shape up or ship out.

In an interview with this publication yesterday, Bennett said it was disturbing that the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) president would disappear, claiming to be in hiding due to alleged threats, but resurface to attend certain meetings. Last week Friday, Dlamini attended meetings between SNAT Executives, senior government officials and members of the executive board of the Education International (EI). The EI team was in the country last week to meet various stakeholders. Bennett said Dlamini was the leader of the organisation (SNAT), hence he should lead by example. He said first and foremost, Dlamini and the entire SNAT Executive should leave politics and stick to their mandate, which was to represent teachers. He said if the teachers wanted to pursue politics, they should resign just like the Minister of Education and Training Lady Mabuza, who was a teacher and then ventured into politics. Mabuza contested the elections at Mafutseni Inkhundla and was subsequently elected as Member of Parliament (MP). Bennett said Dlamini had an obligation, which was to teach in his respective school. He said with his prolonged absence, he was risking losing his job.

He said when one was absent for three days from work without reporting, the Industrial Relations Act of 2000 was very clear on what should happen next, the dismissal of that individual from work. Bennett said government should at some point upgrade its attendance monitoring systems to avoid situations, where civil servants would absent themselves and simply get away with it. He said it was noted that government was often struggling to implement the no-work, no-pay rule, because it had been unable to maintain the register for the civil servants.

Influence

He went on to state that government also needed to clean up the teaching profession as currently, most teachers, through the alleged influence by their association, had turned out to be biting the hand that fed them. Bennett said teaching was a calling and it should be respected by all educators in order for them to deliver accordingly. When sought for comment, the SNAT president said he did not have time to respond to Bennett and he did not have energy to waste on him. “Who is he representing?” asked Dlamini. He said it was such people who had ruined the country because they were respected for being richer than emaSwati and many people were of the view that this was the case, because such individuals (as Bennett) knew everything. Dlamini said it was such a disgrace that a former senator did not know what politics were. In response to SNAT and teachers getting into politics, Dlamini noted that currently, the country was busy with elections and the same elections where teachers were expected to register, vote and even work for the Elections and Boundaries Commision (EBC), were all political activities. Dlamini said SNAT as a major stakeholder was always consulted by Parliament when enacting laws for education in the country. “That on its own is participating in political activities,” said Dlamini. He added that unionised workers could not be treated like farm workers because they (unionised workers) were well capacitated in terms of their rights. “I believe my issue or my condition at work remains between myself and my employer, not anyone else,” said Dlamini. He said if Bennett was so interested in union issues, he must encourage his workers to be unionised and sign a recognition agreement with their union and discuss union issues with them.

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