Times Of Swaziland: 800 PIGG’S PEAK BRANCH MEMBERS NOT IN CLASS

800 PIGG’S PEAK BRANCH MEMBERS NOT IN CLASS
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Joseph Zulu on 12/09/2018 09:38:00


PIGG’S PEAK – Over 800 teachers under the Pigg’s Peak SNAT branch failed
to attend classes yesterday.
SNAT is the Swaziland National Association of Teachers. The Pigg’s Peak branch
comprises schools under Mayiwane, Pigg’s Peak and Ntfonjeni constituencies.
Throngs of the teachers from various schools gathered at Ngonini, where the
meeting was held, to discuss a way forward about the Cost of Living Adjustment
(CoLA), which was being discussed countrywide. The hall at Ngonini could not
accommodate all the teachers as a result most of them remained outside listening
through the Public Address (PA) system, which had been set up. According to
Gcebile Dlamini, who is the National Coordinator for SNAT, between 800 to 1 000
teachers attended the meeting. He said the aim of the meeting was to remind the
teachers about the voting session, which is supposed to take place tomorrow.
Dlamini said the aim of the voting was to decide whether the strike scheduled
for September 19, 2018 should go ahead or not. The teachers were from
surrounding schools such as Mhlatane High, Peak Central High, Mlumati Primary,
Mayiwane High, Ntfonjeni, Maguga and many other schools. Also among the teachers
was Celucolo ‘Dino’ Dlamini, who has been the chairperson of the Pigg’s
Peak SNAT branch since 2010 until 2018. Dlamini was elected as the Deputy
President for the teachers’ association. He commended the teachers for
supporting him throughout his tenure as the chairperson. Meanwhile, as much as
they wanted to attend the meeting and join thousands of fellow educators,
teachers at Pigg’s Peak Central Primary School could not make it. Sive
Nkambule, the head teacher at the school, revealed that the teachers had not
attended the meeting due to lack of funds.
Nkambule said for this reason, lessons continued as normal. However, about eight
of teachers of Peak Central High School managed to attend the meeting. Head
teacher at the school Swebhu Mncina revealed that about eight teachers attended.
When asked if lessons were disrupted, he responded to the negative.