ESCSSA president mum

M- President of the Eswatini Correctional Services Staff Association (ESCSSA) Simiso Ginindza was also coy on the discussions except to state that the talks were progressing well.

“We will share information once everything has been concluded,” said Ginindza.

Meanwhile, Khumalo disclosed that as junior officers they really needed a good therapy because they were traumatised by what their leadership was planning behind the scenes.

Khumalo said she was positive and hopeful that the minister would be announcing good news, which would act as a great motivation to the officers.

She said they were still clueless on how the leadership will restore the trust of junior officers.

Khumalo said this was because they compromised junior officers who tirelessly and loyally worked endlessly even when there were no days-off.

She said it was a challenge to come to terms with how to accept that senior officers would craft a document that compromised them.

“Officers have been working tirelessly, there were times where we worked for the whole month only to learn that days-off were no longer allowed and officers religiously showed up for work,” said Khumalo.

OverlOOk

She said there was nothing to hide that there was a lot of disgruntlement towards leadership on their act of overlooking them when it came to remunerations.

She said what made matters worse was the behind the scenes crafting amid a dangerous campaign where junior officers were targeted in the line of duty.

Khumalo disclosed that it would take a while for them to face their seniors as there were a lot of things that needed to be ironed out.

She further said there are a number of internal issues that needed to be explained and rectified to enable officers to trust them.

“There is a lot that needs to be fixed,” Khumalo said.

Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati said their department could not comment on issues of negotiations as they were outside their scope of their office.

She said their office was not involved or party to such negotiations and they could only assist on issues within the ambit of public relations and communications.

“It would be wrong for REPS to comment on issues that are still being negotiated on other forums and not involved as an office,” said Vilakati.