Courts

MBABANE – The Industrial Court has stopped EPTC from effecting the termination letters dated November 25, 2025, issued to 31 employees.

Judge Faith Dlamini issued the interim order yesterday after hearing arguments on points of law raised by the Eswatini Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (EPTC) in the matter in which the Swaziland Communications and Allied Workers Union (SCAWU), on behalf of the affected employees, ran to the court seeking various orders.

The court also ordered that Minister for Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), Savannah Maziya and the affected employees be joined to the proceedings.

SCAWU wants the court to review and set aside EPTC’s decision to terminate the employees’ contracts, pending a decision by the minister for ICT, on the parliamentary select committee on ICT’s recommendations.

It also seeks an order declaring that the contracts of employment were tacitly renewed and/or that the affected employees are now employed on a permanent basis. This is based on the argument that the employees continued to execute their duties after May 2025 without EPTC’s communication regarding their status, suggesting a valid contract. The union further prays for an order interdicting the company effecting the contents of the November 25, 2025, termination letter.

In the union’s application, SCAWU Secretary General Musawenkosi Mnisi stated that the relationship between the union and the corporation is governed by a Recognition and Procedural Agreement signed in 2020, with the union acting as the sole representative for all unionisable employees.

The issue revolves around the long-term, continuous employment of union members who were placed on segmented one-year fixed-term contracts for periods ranging between five and 15 years. Despite the contracts’ expiry, the employees remained continuously employed without any breaks in service, Mnisi informed the court.

He said in 2022, SCAWU reported a dispute to the Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CMAC) concerning the fixed-term contracts, which were allegedly disadvantageous to the members’ ability to make financial commitments.

“The parties agreed at CMAC that EPTC would create a loan scheme facility with Nedbank Eswatini, allowing fixed-term contract employees access to loans for a maximum period of five years. Many affected members subsequently accessed these loans and are still servicing them, with confirmatory affidavits attached to the application,” Mnisi submitted. 

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Parliament has no powers over individual employment matters – EPTC

MBABANE - The EPTC has told the Industrial Court that Parliament overstepped its mandate by involving itself in the employment situation of the 31 contract workers whose jobs ended earlier this year.  

The 31 employees, who were informed that their employment contracts ended in March 2025, but continued to work pending a decision on a report by a Portfolio Committee on Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), filed an urgent application in the Industrial Court where they are seeking an order to set aside the retrenchments.

In the Eswatini Posts and Telecommunications Corporation’s (EPTC) answering affidavit filed yesterday, Acting Managing Director Lungile Nxumalo argued that Parliament has no jurisdiction over individual employment matters. She insisted that parliamentary select committees’ recommendations cannot bind the corporation or revive expired contracts. She submitted that Parliament may only pass laws governing labour matters, but cannot intervene in disputes involving specific employees.

Nxumalo said the select committee’s inquiry earlier this year did not grant the employees any right to continued employment nor did it instruct EPTC, represented by Hasso Magagula of Dynasty Inc. Attorneys, to retain them. She added that ‘a recommendation is akin to a suggestion’, stressing that Parliament does not have dispute-resolution powers and cannot extend employment contracts.

EPTC said the affected workers were engaged on various fixed-term contracts, which all expired on March 31, 2025. According to Nxumalo, none of the employees raised concerns about the fixed-term nature of their contracts when they were signed.

As parliamentary attention grew around February and March, the corporation said it granted the workers a temporary ‘special dispensation’ pending the tabling of the select committee report. That arrangement, she emphasised, did not amount to contract renewal.

*Full article available in our publication

The Head Office of the Eswatini Post and Telecommunication Corporation in Mbabane.