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NO LESSONS IN 173 SCHOOLS TODAY

22/01/2019 01:27:00 BY STANLEY KHUMALO

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MBABANE – Pupils in 173 schools will have no lessons today as teachers will attend their union’s activities.

The Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) is hosting activities nationwide. The activities hosted by SNAT started yesterday and will last until Friday. The teachers union is engaging in the activities with other members of the public sector associations (PSAs).

The PSAs, in partnership with SNAT are the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union and Swaziland National Association of Government Accounting Personnel (SNAGAP).
According to the General Secretary of SNAT, Sikelela Dlamini, the unions would host meetings in three branches today. These branches are: Siteki, Mankayane and Hluthi.

stay-away

He said the meetings were aimed at engaging their members on the legal status of the proposed mass stay-away next week Monday. The intended protest action emanates from the impasse between government and the PSAs, on the cost-of-living (CoLA) demands.
PSAs demanded 6.55 per cent for their CoLA while government offered zero per cent, citing fiscal challenges.

The failure to settle on a figure resulted in the concerned parties signing a deadlock. As the school calendar starts today, the 173 schools shall be affected in the sense that the teachers, who are members of SNAT, shall have to attend the meetings. “The three branches that will be hosting the meetings tomorrow (today) have 173 schools in total,” Dlamini said.

He said in Siteki, there were 67 schools that subscribe to the branch; and their meeting shall be held at Lubombo Central/REO Hall. The Mankayane branch, according Dlamini, has 50 schools subscribing to it and its meeting shall be hosted at Mankayane Central High School. Further, Dlamini said the Hluthi branch shall host its meeting at Hluthi Central, and under this branch there were 56 schools.

The unionist said the activities of the organisation started yesterday and were held in three centres, namely: Madlangempisi, Maphiveni and Hlathikhulu. He said the meetings hosted by the PSAs were informing civil servants of the status quo and what will happen next week Monday. “We are discarding the fear that is usually cast upon our members by government of no-work-no-pay, as this is a legal activity.”

Dlamini said the meetings were legal as they were recognised by the recognition agreement PSAs had with government. He said the recognition agreement permitted the unions to partake in their activities when the need arose.

strike

“I want to be succinctly clear, lest we are misconceived, the activities are not a strike action but it’s merely meetings where the unions are discussing their work-related issues.”

The unionist said the coincidence between the opening of the schools and the activities were neither here nor there. He said teachers who worked in schools that were located in schools afar from branches hosting meetings should be at their workstations. “Whether schools open or not, we care less as all we’ll be doing is engaging our members on issues of their employment.”

To this, Welcome Mhlanga, President of Eswatini Principals Association (EPA), said: “We’ve not heard of the proposed activities. What we’ve seen from the print media is that next week Monday, civil servants will engage in a mass stay-away.”

He said as EPA, they were aware that the stay-away shall be a rolling action by the civil servants. “If teachers are not in class, all we’ll do is report to the office of the REO (regional education officer) that pupils were present while teachers were absent.”

It is worth noting that this is not the first time SNAT host activities parallel to schools being open. Last year, teachers engaged in activities during the third-term of the schools calendar.
This led to an expenditure in excess of E40 million incurred by government, as 400 cars were leased to assist in the delivery and collection duties of external examination papers. This follows that the Ministry of Education and Training, in haste, had to lease the cars and further rope in personnel from the security forces to invigilate and man security in the schools.
In reaction to this, the Ministry of Education and Training introduced a ‘strike spot check form’. This was said to be an instrument to be used by head teachers in keeping the registry of those present. In reaction to this, head teachers complained that this was a duplication of their work as they were using registers to do the same tasks that were being asked of them by the ministry.
consensus
Meanwhile, our sister publication, the Swazi News, on Saturday reported that Dlamini said the consensus of the General Council meeting held last week Friday, was that all teachers were to attend the joint branch meetings without fail.
According to the Saturday publication, SNAT had noted that it was during these meetings where a strategy would be formulated of the nationwide strike action. He further said the GC meeting agreed that any form of intimidation from the employer would be ignored. Dlamini was quoted as having mentioned that next week, starting from Monday, PSAs would engage in a mass strike action.
The mass stay-away, according to Dlamini, was aimed at coercing their employer to heed to their demand.