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SNAT is the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), while the new Minister of Education and Training is Owen Nxumalo.
The minister, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) of Manzini South met members of the national executive committee (NEC) including the suspended teacher Mbongwa Dlamini who is also the president of SNAT.
Noteworthy, Nxumalo is also the former Minister of Public Service and his interaction with teachers is not new.
When the meeting started, the officials briefly debated whether the media would be allowed to sit in and listen to the discussions. It was, however, later agreed that the meeting would be behind closed doors and that journalists would be free to ask questions after the meeting had ended.
The meeting took over two hours, as the officials discussed issues that they initially said were not for media consumption but that journalists would be allowed to ask questions at the end.
Also noted in the meeting was Lot Vilakati, who is the Secretary General of the organisation.
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After the meeting, Vilakati and the minister briefly spoke about the meeting. Vilakati said the meeting was just a courtesy call to introduce the SNAT NEC to the minister.
He was asked if any pending issues were discussed but he instead did not confirm that but added that the minister, was aware of pending issues that SNAT had, since he was previously a minister under a portfolio that dealt with issues related to workers.
Vilakati also said the purpose of the visit was to discuss how they would work with the minister because they, the Ministry and the teachers needed each other.
Further, Vilakati revealed that they had agreed to meet again on January 4, 2024, to discuss a way forward, regarding some of the grievances that they had tabled before the minister.
When sought for comment, the minister confirmed that
SNAT had raised some concerns but he said he would not pre-empt anything for now.
He said aim was to have a good relationship, going forward and also have a timeline of when some of the issues that were raised would be resolved.
“Teachers are very important stakeholders and we need to engage them,” said the minister.
He said one of the things they discussed was that whenever there were issues, they should be discussed at the table and that if there was a need to escalate them, it should be so.
Nxumalo further said that the King had emphasised that work should be done in the spirit of ‘nkwe’, meaning urgently. He said it was for this reason that matters should be resolved speedily to ensure that children had quality education.
The minister further said he had ‘frank talk’ with the representatives of SNAT. Also present were other officials in the Ministry including the acting Principal Secretary (PS) Naniki Mnisi.
Meanwhile, some of the obvious concerns that SNAT has been pushing for the government to act on is the reinstatement of Dlamini.
The members of the organisation had in the past mobilised their members to push the government in the reinstatement of the leader with some complaining that Dlamini was being victimised.
Other issues included the non-hiring of teachers such that many of them were those who were working on temporary contracts.