TEACHING A NOBLE PROFESSION?

Sir

I’m sure civil servants can by now tell that the bumper pay bubble was and is a great hoax. I’m not a prophet of doom but neither am I a day dreamer.

I’m a civil servant who knows the salary-negotiation game and its rules. We should not misplace our hopes in anyway. We know how our government operates when it comes to the welfare of its employees. Government expects perfect work with less or no pay.
I’m referring closely to the current status of contract teachers and by extension all underpaid civil servants. As teachers, we are now forced to accept that in the eyes of our parliamentarians we are the worst profession.

To lie to ourselves and think ours is a noble profession, we need to think again. It’s not a mistake that contract teachers are not paid in the last four months, but rather a big comment on attitudes over teachers.

Nobody cares about the welfare of teachers, who are forced to beg for the salary they have worked for. I recently had a very sad discussion with a contract teacher who has spent 11 years at primary school, paid on a lower scale of C3, yet a degree holder with PGCE qualifying to teach at high school and deserving a better pay scale of C5.

She has been sent from pillar to post and has been robbed of her hard earned cash through bribery for jobs schemes. She is not the only one, and all the time she is told that this is Swaziland. Teachers are desperate and are now ill-treated and butchered because of their financial challenges.

A twist in her tale is how she watched her biological mother die without better healthcare because she couldn’t help her as she had to endure months without pay. The vinegar on her wound was how she suffered ridicule and judgement from relatives for her inability to take care of her sick parent, yet she worked.

 Relatives and debt collectors are failing to understand this financial challenge induced by inconsistent pay. It’s so sad to be a teacher. How long will teachers suffer until someone listens?

No one is ready to explain the reason for such cases of abuse, yes abuse! It’s funny how the very same government that fails to pay teachers in time is quick when it comes to firing them when they demand what is due to them.

It’s from such a reality that I’m urging civil servants and teachers to forget that they will ever receive meaningful pay. The delay and postponement of negotiations is deliberate. The calculation is clear here.

“Keep them guessing until national major events pass by, so that they won’t make noise.”
It just won’t be okay to have civil servants on strike during the much revered occasions such as SADC meeting. So the strategy is to promise them a bumper pay and keep them quiet and then tell them there is no money. What’s very sad is that we see the money and how it’s lying idle in the hands of the few individuals.

Exorbitant expenditures and utter corruption is our downfall as a country, worsened by the fact that it seems some people have a birth right to  it. While those born with a silver spoon are flashing their means of existence through our hard earned money from our bloody sweat, are a minority yet the majority are collecting flies as their next meal. Should people be happy then?
Where is the source of hope on such a reality? The negotiation’s modus operandi is well known. Government pretends to have no money as it has been the case over the past years.

Teachers and civil servants likewise pretend to recharge a clear mandate but guess what; workers will threaten government with a strike action. Government will apply the no work no pay rule so workers get divided and return to work, which ends the strike. It has been the case with teachers.

The 2012 lesson was enough to scare teachers. I’m sorry to say it, we won’t get any 25 or 20, not even 15 per cent salary raise. It’s an old game. This is despite the fact that Swaziland is ready to host the SADC meeting. We cannot afford displays of discontent can we!
I have said it in more ways than one that our country is less of a mother than it is of our grave. My greatest fear is the end result of such.

I’m worried about government’s sustained belief that civil servants can be tossed anyhow. We have in the past believed that maybe the forces are better civil servants. Seriously speaking this is not the case. They are also having accommodation issues like us. They are packed like sardines in their rooms.

They need the money like us. They are silenced than content. They are now sharing the same sentiments that something should be done to put the point across that all civil servants are on dire straits and hungry cause of poor pay. How long should this go on?  What should be clear to government is that there is no dangerous game than turning the working class into beggars. This only turns the screws of poverty on us all.

I’m afraid when all workers are hungry including the esteemed forces, things may get out of control. Teachers are not the only ones who are swimming in low-pay induced debts. Money lending schemes are making millions from the desperate civil servants. It is a shame to work for government. Who will bail us out from this mess?

Vincent

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