Times Of Swaziland: SPARE THE LIVES

SPARE THE LIVES
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By Martin Dlamini on 06/09/2018 23:07:00


“REST assured there is something that is going to happen and it will be like
we are disrespectful yet it will be because of the experience we are getting
from the round-table.”
These are the alleged words of former Swaziland National Association of Teachers
(SNAT) President Freedom Dlamini uttered during the teachers 75/8 Biennial
Conference held at Esibayeni Lodge this week.
The round-table Dlamini is referring to, is the salary negotiations talks where
the Government Negotiations Team (GNT) has, for the second consecutive year,
offered a zero per cent cost of living adjustment (CoLa).
The statement by Dlamini cannot be taken lightly given the shocking developments
of the past few weeks, where we saw some teachers blockade a public road, armed
themselves with rocks and pelted police officers who attempted to remove them.
This altercation resulted in the officers opening fire with live rounds of
ammunition, injuring one teacher in the arm. One teacher physically manhandled
an officer and wrestled him to the ground. The actions of both parties deserve
to be condemned. Violent protests are not what we want to see dictating the
order of business in this country.
Days later police were beating up a journalist for no apparent reason when a
protest broke out in Nhlangano. The National Commissioner of Police, Isaac
Magagula, has apologised to this newspaper for this and has assigned a senior
cop to address it. While we await the outcome of this promise, we brace
ourselves for more protests if Freedom Dlamini’s statement is anything to go
by.
To underscore the mood in the teachers camp, is the protest against former
Education and Training Minister Dr Phineas Magagula at the teachers conference.
A former president of the organisation, Magagula, was disrupted during his
speech and labelled a sellout. He suffered the sins of his Cabinet team members
and cannot pass the buck because they always preached that they worked as a
collective. Discontent is high among the populace and some form of relief needs
to be forthcoming soon; but from where?
Government’s ability to respond financially has been worsened by reports
coming from South Africa this week. Prospects of increased economic growth have
been dampened by South Africa slipping into a technical recession following
negative growth figures in the last quarter. We all know that when big brother
SA sneezes, all SACU member countries catch the flu. We receive over 60 per cent
of our national budget funding from SACU and SA is the major contributor to this
pool, therefore, SACU receipts may plunge further.
This simply means there is a need for further cuts to government spending. Last
week, the Central Bank of Eswatini warned of a possible delink of the LiLangeni,
which is pegged to the SA Rand, if austerity measures were not implemented
immediately.
Whatever the outcome of the next six to eight weeks before a new Cabinet team
takes charge, we encourage peaceful demonstrations which can also have good
effect. Workers have just been given the backing of the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) that compelled government to control the behaviour of the
security forces during peaceful public protests. It would be very unfortunate
and downright naive if the teachers were ‘test-driving’ their new protection
by deliberately causing a traffic jam and attempting to injure the police
officers who tried to move them.
That said, we cannot ignore the fact that the patience of teachers, and their
public servant colleagues, has been stretched to the limit. For two years,
government has offered a zero per cent cost of living adjustment on the one
hand, but has raised taxes and user fees on the other. Common sense suggests
that the public servants are being deliberately driven into poverty and this is
bound to raise anger, frustration and subsequently some form of retaliation,
which we see playing itself out in the violent clashes.
The statement by the former SNAT president suggests worse is yet to come and who
knows, this time there could be dead bodies. These bodies may not only come from
live rounds of ammunition; they could also come from neglect in hospitals where
we saw nurses leave patients unattended on Wednesday as they engaged in meetings
over their next plan of action to get government to listen to their plight.
The biggest mistake government can make is to think that it will use military
force to restore law and order should things get out of hand. We are not a
military State and never wish to be. This approach would most certainly drive
away the investors we need to create jobs and boost the economy. We need our
peace, which is just about the only incentive we have left to lure investors.
People need jobs and businesses need to be paid to keep the economy working.
Government is failing in this regard and has turned on the people with taxes.
The popular ‘Dubais’ are now beyond affordability for the low income earners
following an increase in import duties. Buying a house has also been put beyond
the reach of the middle class with the increase in conveyancing fees and stamp
duty. Fuel prices have risen and so has VAT, the combination of which has driven
the prices of several commodities up. Public servants must live but there has
been no change in their living wages.
This is a tall ask for the ordinary man on the street but it seems beyond the
comprehension of the high earners who used to swing in comfortable chairs at
Hospital Hill. Our Cabinet has left office and, frankly, nobody will miss this
group. Principal secretaries are now in charge, albeit until the next government
takes office. Can they ensure a smooth opening of schools next week?
Can they ensure patients find all the medication they need and receive proper
treatment from nurses in hospitals and clinics? Can they stop the bleed of
public funds, abuse of government property; ensure every worker is accounted for
in the payroll? Most importantly, can they deliver CoLa to the workers and avert
violent demonstrations countrywide? We can only ask of our controlling officers
that they do what Cabinet failed to do to ensure that nobody dies from all of
this.