Officers accuse NATCOM of frustrating, silencing them

MBABANE - The Royal Eswatini Police Service Staff Association has accused the national commissioner (NATCOM) of Police, of having employed a number of underhand tactics to frustrate and silence them.

The association and its Secretary General(SG), Dumisile Khumalo, made these allegations in the application where they are among other prayers seeking an order declaring as unconstitutional the instruction by the NATCOM that they should not to hold meetings.

“I hasten to mention that there was interference and attempts to control the police staff association by the NATCOM from as early as its formative stages. The national commissioner had his own preferred candidates who contested the elections,” submitted the SG.

According to the applicants (SG and the association, his (national commissioner) Intention was allegedly to sideline those who were linked to the formation of the 2007 police union, the likes of the incumbent chairperson and her among others.

She told the court that, unfortunately, the membership elected them into office.

“To date, the national commissioner never issued any communication announcing the finalisation of the election of the office bearers of the Police Service Staff Association, as he had done when elections were done at station level and also at regional level,” submitted the applicants.

This, according to the applicants, had resulted in them failing to officially launch the association and initiate processes for the proper running of it, such as registering their members, taking subscriptions, having bank accounts, collaborating with sister-associations locally and internationally.

“We have also engaged the national commissioner and the government at least five times

on the issue of the implementation of Phase II of the 2014 Circular. In all our engagements we have seen empty promises spiced with untruths and contradictions which cast serious doubt on the bona fides of the employer in our negotiations on the issue,” submitted the association.

The association alleged that in its first meeting, it was informed by the NATCOM that they needed not to worry as he had written to government (Ministry of Public Service) to implement Phase II of the 2014 Circular.

Implementation

It was further their submission that the NATCOM and the commissioner general of His Majesty’s Correctional Services also engaged them and assured them that they were working on the implementation of Phase II of the 2014 Circular. They claimed that the NATCOMengaged them through regional visits while the commissioner general visited the various stations of the Correctional Services, since there are no regional offices in the Correctional Services.

“In our last meeting with the two commissioners, they told us that government told them that there is no money and that they had engaged a consultant to conduct a salary review for all civil servants and that we would benefit from that process.

After being told of the issue of the salary review by the consultant since engaged, we got possession of a Task Team Report on how Phase II of the 2014 Circular was to be implemented in both the Royal Eswatini Police Service and in His Majesty’s Correctional Services.

They told the court that according to the Task Team Report, the Phase II of the 2014 Circular was to be implemented by increasing salaries with varying percentages, those in higher positions getting bigger increments while the lowest ranking officers got a solatium. The matter is still pending in court.