SNAT: Release Mbongwa’s salary or else ...
MBABANE – Teachers are threatening to disrupt schools examinations this year if government does not release SNAT president’s salary.
The threats were made by the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General Lot Vilakati, at the Ministry of Education and Training yesterday.
Following the suspension of the SNAT President, Mbongwa Dlamini’s salary last month, the association delivered a petition to the ministry of education and Training (MoET) where they presented six demands, which they said should be responded to next week Friday, November 11, 2022. Among the demands was the release of the SNAT president’s salary and the dropping of all charges levelled against him by the Office of the Schools Manager headed by Lungelo Nhlengetfwa.
Speaking just after reading the petition, which was received by the Principal Secretary, Bhekithemba Gama, Vilakati said the continuous victimisation of the SNAT president along other executive members of the union by the ministry’s undersecretary was likely to jeopardise the upcoming 2022 examinations. This month, pupils in completing grades are expected to sit for their external examinations.
Vilakati said if government continued with suspending Dlamini’s salary, it left teachers with no choice but to disrupt the upcoming examination. The threat to disrupt the examinations was not included in the petition.
“The ministry’s Under Secretary Lungelo Nhlengetfwa does not want pupils to sit for their exams this year.
If he wants them to sit for their exams the SNAT president’s salary would be released before the end of the day (meaning yesterday). If he fails to release the salary, he should know that the future of the pupils is on his shoulders,” he said.
Vilakati promised that the union would stand by its president until the end. He revealed that all the 109 days of supposed absenteeism by the SNAT president, he had been attending the union’s assignments along with other 10 executive members. He said they were surprised to note that only the president received a letter about his absenteeism.
“We are still expecting more letters because we were with him,” he said.
Adding, Vilakati said the ministry was contravening the law because it was not supposed to frustrate Dlamini, stating that SNAT had a recognition agreement with government, therefore, its executive members were allowed to attend union activities. He said if the salary continued being suspended, schools were likely to be closed indefinitely.
Procedure
Vilakati said they felt that the ministry was not following the proper disciplinary procedure when it came to issues that pertained to the SNAT president. He said at first, the head teacher of the school where Dlamini was a teacher should have reported about the president’s absenteeism to the regional education officer (REO) after he had spoken to him. If he continued with the unknown absenteeism, the matter would have then been referred to the office of the schools manager. However, that was not the case, instead Dlamini was served with letters.
Further, Vilakati said they were aware that at some point, civil servants had to answer to their employer for misconduct but in the case of the SNAT president, it was clear that the matter was personal and was meant to scare other civil servants. He said Dlamini was victimised because he was speaking for the oppressed civil servants, which was something that government did not want.
“The union does not imply that they do not want to be charged where they did wrong but want proper processes to be followed,” he said.
He called for unity among the civil servants in order to fight for their rights.