SNAT TO DELIVER PETITION, DEMAND MBONGWA’S SALARY

MANZINI – SNAT President Mbongwa Dlamini has not been paid his salary for July and the teachers’ union leadership will deliver a petition to the Ministry of Education and Training tomorrow.

This is according to a statement issued by the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General (SG), Lot Vilakati yesterday. The unionist said their president was again not paid for the month of July 2023, despite the fact that he was going to school religiously. He said numerous meetings with their line ministry over the matter were held, but they (meettings) were bearing no fruits. “What we have observed in the meetings is what is termed as meetings management and professional delaying tactics by the senior management team of the Ministry of Education and Training,” the SG said.

He said despite the promise that their president would be paid and subsequent encouragement to continue going to work, the administration continued to withhold his salary. He said by so doing, the employer was depriving him of his livelihood. “This is the worst form of violation of worker’s rights - to deprive a worker his salary after diligently performing his duties as an employee,” Vilakati said. He highlighted that their president was last paid his salary in September 2022. He said the national executive committee (NEC) of the teachers association had continually asked the Ministry of Education and Training if withholding the president’s salary was for political or professional reasons, because the courts ruled on the matter in favour of the president.

However, he said government decided to undermine the court ruling as to date, the president’s salary had not been released. Vilakati said on Wednesday July 19, 2023, the ministry’s officials told the SNAT NEC that instructions were given to the Ministry of Public Services to open the salary. “However, this did not happen,” Vilakati said. Therefore, he said according to their analysis, it was now clear that reinstatement of the president’s salary needed them to gear up for mass action as an alternative. In that regard, he said the leadership of the union would deliver the petition tomorrow to the Ministry of Education and Training at 10:30am. He said the leaders would include general council members, NEC members and 15 branch executive committee members.

He said this decision was taken by the general council in its last meeting – that if government would not release their president’s salary, they would stage a leadership petition delivery at the Ministry of Education and Training. The unionist added that this activity would be followed by petition deliveries to all regional education offices (REOs) across the country. He said the petition deliveries would be done by branches and schedules would be communicated by his office in due course.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: