FESWATU BLAMES UNIONS FOR AGOA, JOB LOSSES

The President of FESWATU Mshumi Shongwe introducing the executive members of the federation during its official launch in Nhlangano on Sunday. (Pic: Sibusiso Shange)

NHLANGANO – In what could lend a degree of credence to talk about the formation of the new federation as a strategy to defuse unionists perceived as radical, FESWATU President Mashumi Shongwe spent more time blaming certain unions for the country’s woes.

Speaking during the launch of the federation in Nhlangano on Sunday, Shongwe lamented the loss of AGOA and other sanctions imposed on the country by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Even though the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) was not named during the May Day celebrations in Nhlangano, the clashes between the Federation of Swaziland Trade Unions (FESWATU) and the former have been well documented by the media ever since last year’s controversial trip to the ILO meeting in Geneva.
“As a country, we are in the bad books of some international organisations because of certain people who talked ill about us abroad, and we have to get off that situation.

“As a federation, we promise to do all our best to rescue the country and we are going to talk on behalf of the country,” Shongwe stressed.
“We can’t sit back when people are condemned to hunger because of job losses. We thank government for the effort seen in addressing the issue of the AGOA benchmarks, to which all social partners had a chance to contribute.”

However, Shongwe denied that his federation was formed to neutralise existing workers’ federations, even though there was no question about his address being made to attack other formations in the labour industry.

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