SNAT leader explains why unions not marching

MBABANE - On the other hand, Mamba told Swaziland National Association of Teachers ( SNAT) President Mbongwa Dlamini that unions should collectively open up space for public and worker action.

“You guys are the only ones who can legitimately hold a strike, protest or petition delivery but we don’t see anything from you. Trade Unions have always played this role very well, why must it now be a problem with you guys at this decisive time of our struggle?,” said Velaphi Mamba, who is employed by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa ( OSISA) as Team Leader.

He further stated: “We also want to hear you call your constituents to the battlefront. It is not enough to merely claim that they are already there. The union you lead for example commands a more than 12k constituency. The question is where is this mass and why isn’t it being mobilised effectively? I hope you realise that SNAT by itself can bring this country to a standstill, but we see no such and we demand answers as to why you are not providing the necessary leadership.”

In response, the SNAT leader said his understanding was that the trade union members were also members of political parties, therefore, the people who were participating in the demonstration ‘ are not only members of political parties but also trade union members’. He also reminded Mamba that the matter being spoken about was handed over by trade unions to the Political Parties Assembly ( PPA) by the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland ( TUCOSWA) – the trade union movement mother- body. “That was because trade unions by nature are limited to bread and butter issues and it’s only safe for members to deal with purely political issues in their respective political parties,” added the SNAT president.

To this, Mamba conceded on the ‘ bread and butter issues’ but said the SNAT leader should not hide behind the PPA because the latter did not have legal standing ‘ to get people safely into the streets without exposing them to State violence’. “Unions have this. I fail to see how bread and butter issues can be argued not to exist in the context we currently face,” the OSISA employee and political activist said. But the SNAT leader pointed out that as trade unions they were ‘ confined by the same statutes to industrial matters’ and any strike by labour unions would have to be based on industrial issues ‘ and any other strike can be illegal’.

SNAT Editor Mcolisi Motsa also entered the fray and queried what the definition of ‘ missing’ was, alongside an attachment of a statement issued by the Public Sector Associations ( PSAs) pertaining to the calls for political reforms. To this, Mamba said they were not looking for statements but action. He said teachers were sitting at home ‘ with no clear direction and you their leaders are silent’. “And the statement oddly ends without a clear line of march, or a vision for the next steps. What kind of statement is this? PSAs meeting to craft a statement that merely describes the problem and does nothing to galvanise workers to action. You want us to accept this inertia cadre,” Mamba said.

Motsa appeared irked by Mamba’s words and said even though he wanted to respond he could not because the political activist had labelled as ‘ nonsense’ what the PSAs had agreed to be appropriate content. “If four unions craft a statement and the audience see it as nonsense, mine is to say ‘ salute’, nothing more my leader,” he said.

Mamba had to withdraw the ‘ nonsense’ after one other unionist told him that the PSAs statement was clear on the line of march and spelled out their support for the call for democracy. This particular unionist differed with Mamba such that she eventually elected to leave most of the latter’s questions unanswered, something that left the political activist disappointed but hoped the former would take the points raised into consideration because ‘ if we don’t call each other out, we are doomed’.

Barnes Dlamini, the Chairman of the Institute for Democracy and Leadership ( IDEAL), who is former president of the now defunct SFTU, came in to try and reconcile the unionists and political activists. He asked the political activists what they wanted the workers to do now and, after suggestions were brought forward by Mamba and others, promised to take these to the unionists. Historically, political parties in the country have not been successful in attracting big numbers when calling for rallies or mass demonstrations. Instead, they have relied on funerals and gatherings organised by the trade union movement to make their presence felt. Even at the present moment, they have been taking advantage of funerals for people killed, allegedly by the security forces, during the civil unrest.