UNIONS SLAM SALE OF GOVT HOUSE TO EX-PS

MBABANE – Unions representing civil servants have frowned upon government selling a house worth E2.7 million, to retired Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Clifford Mamba.

The unions have condemned this act by government. National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) President Bawinile Ndlovu, said it was wrong for government to ‘pull aside’ someone and sell to them a house. Ndlovu said if government sold the house to Mamba, it was done clandestinely, because there had been no auction of same and employees failed to buy it. The president noted that if ever government wanted workers to vacate its property, in order to sell them, they needed to raise the housing allowance to a point where employees would be able to rent decent houses closer to their workplaces.

As of now, she said, the housing allowance was very low, hence the reason they did not vacate government houses. She said there was one method of disposing of government property, which was through an auction.  “If government is confirming that the retired PS was engaged in secret, that is corruption at its best and we condemn it as a union,” she alleged.
Ndlovu said another disturbing issue was that the housing need for civil servants was enormous and one wondered why the employer chose to sell the house to Mamba. She stated that government houses were constructed for the purpose of its employees, because transfers happened any time, such as a worker from Mbabane being transferred to Nhlangano. The president said government housing was not enough and they wondered how they reached the decision to sell houses.

Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General (SG) Lot Vilakati, said the anticipation was that when Mamba retired, the current PS should take over the house.
Vilakati said they were not privy to the policy that was used when the house was sold to the retired PS. According to Vilakati, if the sale is open to all civil servants, it should be announced by government, in order to offer equal opportunities to other civil servants. He said they were currently struggling with the existing teacher-housing shortage, extending to other civil servants. The SG said the country does not have a policy to the effect that civil servants could rent and pay the housing bond.

“What can curb the shortage of housing for government employees is the implementation of the Salary Review Appeal of 2016, whereby the consultant had recommended that government should increase the housing allowances,” he said. Vilakati said doing so would enable civil servants to look for their own houses to rent, because government has failed.
In future, he said they would appreciate that government construct houses for its workers, either in urban or rural areas, and they would in turn pay a bond for the 30 years they would be housed, then own the structures after that period.  This, he said, happened in other countries. He said civil servants even owned apartments in other countries.

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