SCHOOLS OPENING IN LIMBO OVER PAY HIKE

MANZINI – The opening of schools next Tuesday is in limbo as SNAT has called an urgent teachers’ mass meeting over the cost of living adjustment increment.

The Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) wants to find a way forward and strategies to push government to finalise and pay them the 9.15 per cent cost of living adjustment before the round table gets suspended due to the start of the Incwala ceremony.

This transpired during the SNAT Extra-ordinary General Council meeting, which was held at SNAT Centre yesterday and the date for the meeting was discussed by SNAT NEC after the gathering. The mass meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday September 12, the day when schools will open for the third term. The proposed venue for now is the SNAT Centre in Manzini.

The meeting was called by teachers organised under SNAT and they sent their branch leaders to get an update from the National Executive Council (NEC), about the ongoing negotiations with the employer, as they are not in a position to accept the zero per cent offer tabled by government.

After getting the update, the leaders of the association took a resolution to call an urgent mass meeting for all teachers, where they would be given an opportunity to discuss a way forward on the matter.
A source within the organisation said the teachers were worried that if government was offering zero per cent, it meant government was not willing to negotiate and the issue could drag until the start of the Incwala ceremony, which would automatically suspend the round table. “The leaders then decided to give the matter to the members on the ground so that they can come up with a way forward to force government to pay them the cost of living adjustment increment before the Incwala,” the source said.

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