THE GOOD, BAD LESSONS IN PAST 50YRS

After the fateful 1973 State of Emergency Decree, the first victims of the 60-day detention without trial were the leadership of the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC) and some of the victims were deported much against the decisions of the courts as a special tribunal was set up to grant the deportation order.

This was bad because it was a violation of fundamental God-given freedoms that include the freedom of expression, speech, opinion as well as the freedom of association and assembly.  This was also in violation of the right of the people to be represented by representatives of their own choice because all civil liberties were criminalised.

Government introduced the Ndabazabantu at the workplaces to deal with industrial relations matters without any training and Ndabazabantu were appointed by the King through the recommendation of Prince Masitsela with the intention to fully frustrate unionism and collective worker action at the workplace.

frustrating possible strike activities
This was also targeted at frustrating any possible strike activities. Unfortunately, the introduction of Ndabazabantu at the workplace did not only frustrate workers but the employers as well because they did not succeed in delivering on the expectations as strikes at the workplaces did not stop. The bad working conditions and unsafe workplaces did not improve either.

This was despite hearing about the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as a special body dealing with the tripartite and all workplace issues.

This was another big milestone accomplished by King Sobhuza II in his quest of seeking systematic industrial peace that had to be acceptable to workers, employers and government.
The workers’ leaders from the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) under the leadership of the first woman Secretary General Comrade Nomthetho Gladys Simelane, Obed Dlamini and Abel Dlamini pressured government and demanded their right to association and assembly.

Notably, both Nomthetho and Obed were employed by the Standard Bank and they also belonged to the Swaziland Bankers’ Union.

dealing with labour issues

At the time, the office of the Deputy Prime Minister headed by Zonke Khumalo was dealing with labour issues. Khumalo was also the Secretary General of the Imbokodvo National Movement - the ruling party at the time that was formed as a result of the fateful 1973 Decree.

On the other hand, we had a tough Swaziland National Teachers Association (SNAT) which was then led by the likes of Albert Heshane Shabangu and other powerful, forceful, and resolute leaders, whose gross victimisation by government, in particular Heshane Shabangu, led to the 1977 strike which was also joined by students.  It was during some of the tough engagements that the idea of ILO - a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) focusing on tripartism, labour relations and systems of conflict management systems were brought into the thought process.

It was yet another milestone that the government at the time sought ILO intervention to provide technical assistance in advising about the right conventions which the country had to ratify to produce labour laws that would have the capacity to provide industrial peace and setting up conflict resolutions mechanisms at the workplace. The ILO provided the technical assistance as requested and accordingly, in 1978,  Swaziland ratified over 10 conventions and among those, they included the right to freedom of association, the right to free collective bargaining, the abolition of forced Labour, the convention on equal pay for work of equal value Irrespective of gender, the convention on minimum wage and also the introduction of the industrial relations and other tripartite dialogue structures such as the Labour Advisory Board to mention but a few. These initiatives introduced the Employment Act No.4 of 1980 and the Industrial Relations Act of 1980.

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