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WHY KING DIDN’T

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MANZINI – Percy Simelane, Government Press Secretary, says His Majesty’s Government has committed itself to finding an alternative that would create massive jobs for Swazis.

He said government made sure His Majesty the King did not dwell on the past when he opened the second session of the Tenth Parliament.

According to Simelane, ‘Plan A’ was disturbed by the workers themselves.

He said Plan A (textile industry) was very important but open to abuse by workers’ federations.

Speaking exclusively to the Times SUNDAY, Simelane further said the King actually did talk about alternative markets in his Speech from the Throne.

He said the King could not have spoken about the five benchmarks Swaziland had to meet to retain the AGOA markets because TUCOSWA abandoned talks over AGOA while they were in progress. AGOA is the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a United States Government law passed to allow certain countries to import goods to America without paying high export duties. This saves the countries a lot of money.

Swaziland was one of the benefitting countries but was removed last year because it failed to meet the conditions, known as benchmarks for eligibility.

Simelane said it was unfortunate that trade unions were working against government efforts to create jobs.

The government press secretary said it would not be easy for jobs to be created under `Plan B,’ only to vanish as a result of demonstrations by the workers.

"It was easy for the trade unions to cancel the jobs we created in the textile industry but they won’t do the same with the jobs government will create very soon under Plan B," he said. He said the nation would recall how Beral in Ngwenya closed down, with 300 people losing jobs. He said a certain federation was responsible for these job losses. The same thing, he said, happened at Sappi Usutu.

Simelane said a certain workers’ union also caused 32 former employees of the Swaziland Television Authority (STVA) to lose jobs. Simelane said the unions were also influencing workers in the sugar companies to abandon work and demonstrate, something that has resulted in many workers to lose jobs. Simelane was responding to a concern raised by the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA).

 

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