MINISTER OWEN INTERVENES IN UNESWA IMPASSE

MBABANE – Following a resolution that academic and non-academic staff of University of Eswatini (UNESWA) will boycott classes and march to Parliament to tomorrow, Minister of Education and Training Owen Nxumalo has quickly stepped in to intervene.

Yesterday, the minister spent about three hours locked in a meeting with representatives of the Association of Lecturers and Academic and Administrative Personnel (ALAAP) and the National Workers Union in Swaziland Higher Institutions (NAWUSHI). The meeting, which started just after 9am and was attended by around 20 members, took place at the ministry’s boardroom and lasted until the afternoon. The minister has intervened by reaching an agreement with the two associations that a task team will be appointed to conduct an assessment of the challenges faced by the country’s supreme institution of higher learning. However, it remains unclear if the staff members will return for duty tomorrow, a day in which students are expected to sit their examination.

In our sister publication the Eswatini News yesterday, it was reported that following that the payment of their salaries was delayed for four days and eventually paid on Friday, the employees had resolved against taking part of the institution’s biggest activity next week-the examination. Instead, they agreed in unison that they would go to Parliament with the aim to deliver a petition that would detail the crisis that has engulfed the institution and has continued for more than three years. Worth noting is that Parliament has a big agenda scheduled for tomorrow and it includes the presentation of the budget speech by the Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg. In a letter issued by ALAAP Secretary General Dr Mduduzi Shongwe directed to the Registrar, Dr Salebona Simelane, the association informed the management that it had taken some resolutions at an extra-ordinary meeting held on Friday at the Commerce Lecture Theatre, Kwaluseni Campus.

According to the statement, the ALAAP members resolved that the executive committee should communicate to the institution’s management that they were not ready to participate in teaching and learning activities, including invigilating examination and thus would need a week from the day of payment of salaries. The members said they needed the week as they would be seeking treatment and remedies for the psychological and financial stress they had endured during the time of the delayed payment of salaries. Another resolution taken by the members was that tomorrow, they would march to Parliament to raise awareness of the plight of the institution.

7-day ultimatum

Thirdly, the members resolved that the current management of the institution be given seven calendar days to remit all monies owed to all financial institutions, which were deducted from source but never remitted. The monies, according to the statement, include remittances for medical aid. In the event the management failed, the association said the members would not continue with teaching. In the same letter, reference was made to two joint correspondences dated June 5, 2023 and March 30, 2023, which were written by the association together with NAWUSHI to the university council on a vote of no confidence on the entire management. “The current management is given seven calendar days to resign en masse, failing which, ALAAP members will not continue with teaching and learning activities under the current management,” reads part of the letter.

Furthermore, the members also took a resolution that tomorrow they would go to the Ministry of Education and Training and the Prime Minister’s Offices to petition government to place the institution under the administration of the aforementioned ministry immediately until a new management was in place. After the meeting yesterday, Minister Nxumalo then addressed the media to share feedback on what had transpired. He first explained that the ministry had been made aware that not all was right at the institution. Nxumalo recounted that in his capacity as the substantive minister for the education sector, he had reported the issue at Cabinet level. “I requested for guidance from Cabinet on this issue because I want to find a way of finding a solution. We have seen that due to frustration, the staff members had planned to go to Parliament to relay their pain. That is why I took the decision to have this meeting so that we can engage,” the minister said.

He mentioned that while he could not delve much on what exactly was discussed, an agreement was reached that an assessment be conducted, something he said had already been recommended by Cabinet. “The task team will go to the university and get to understand why there are challenges. We are hoping that the team will make proper recommendations on how the institution can be assisted. We must remember that civil servants must never face the frustration of not being paid their salaries, but right now there is a misconception that government is not releasing the money,” said Nxumalo.

Elaborating, the minister clarified that the assessment was not necessarily a forensic audit but a fact-finding exercise. “We just want to know what happens to the money that government releases to the institution. We will then come back and find a way forward. His Majesty has encouraged that we must avoid the pickets and petitions but sit down and engage,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the ALAAP members was top lawyer Sifiso Nhlabatsi, who first thanked the minister for taking his time to hold the meeting with them. Nhlabatsi said they believed that the assessment will bring preliminary findings that will allow for all parties involved to find solutions. “At this stage as an association we have decided to explore all available avenues to get our voices heard regarding the challenges we face. The issue here is that it destroys our self-esteem and integrity when as lecturers we are made to stand in front of students who know that we have not been paid. We cannot be taken serious when almost every month there are headlines reporting that lecturers have not been paid,” Nhlabatsi said.

Regarding the resolution to deliver a petition in Parliament, Nhlabatsi said they informed the minister that it was taken by members during an extra-ordinary meeting. “We told the minister that we cannot reverse it in such a platform, but we have heard his appeal to us to halt the visit to Parliament. We hear him and we are hopeful that we will engage with members and get direction on what should happen. Nevertheless we are grateful for the spirit the minister has shown, especially since it is a Saturday and he should be focusing on other commitments,” said Nhlabatsi. Also speaking to the media after the meeting was Sikelela Ngwenya, the President of NAWUSHI.

Ngwenya also commended the minister for taking his time to meet them, saying it showed that he was committed to seeing the current issues resolved. Ngwenya said as a union, they had tried to meet the ministry’s principal secretary (PS) to request that there be engagements but they discovered that they needed to do more. The president said it was not just issues of UNESWA that they wanted addressed by other institutions as well. “The state of our tertiary institutions is bad and a solution has to be found otherwise the country’s education sector is going to be a mess. We want universities that will operate without strikes, delayed salaries or non-provision of working tools,” he said. Ngwenya made a commitment that, as a union, they were ready to provide any information that would be needed by the task team.

ALL SYSTEMS GO FOR EXAMs

The Registrar of UNESWA Dr Salebona Simelane has given assurance that it is all systems go for the start of the examination at the institution. Simelane said when it came to the examination; the administration was responsible which meant that a boycott by lecturers would not stop the examination from taking place. This is despite that the staff members of the institution resolved that they needed a week to recover from the psychological stress they had endured when their salaries were not forthcoming. When called later yesterday, ALAAP Secretary General Dr Mduduzi Shongwe said the association would engage members tomorrow morning to tale a decision on what will happen next.

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