WE’RE TAKEN FOR GRANTED - UNIONS

MBABANE – “Do politicians ever belt-tighten during fiscal challenging times in the country?”
Some members of the public sector associations (PSAs) have come out guns-blazing when it comes to government expenditure. The unionists were reacting to government paying tindvuna tetinkhundla and bucopho their medical aid.

This is a benefit the politicians are to receive starting this month and amounts to  E3 752 028.
Sikelela Dlamini, Secretary General of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), wondered whether politicians developed amnesia to the fiscal crisis when it came to their well-being, or only those responsible for being productive within the government machinery had to bear the brunt of the monetary challenges.

He said the move by government to award the 395 politicians this benefit, showed lack of priorities in the bureaucracy.
“Government has failed to afford civil servants the cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA) for two consecutive years but within four months, they have agreed to pay medical aid for tindvuna tetinkhundla and bucopho,” Dlamini said.

The unionist said this depicted that government failed to prioritise and reward people with skills but preferred those with no particular skills.

Failed

Noting that government had failed for a lengthy period to pay suppliers and rendered some of the citizens unemployed; failed to provide medical supplies and equipment in hospitals, such expenditure should not have been a priority.

 “Where does the money for politicians come from as we use the same coffers?”
Dlamini lamented that government was taking civil servants for granted as it did not make sense to have money to attend to a certain group of people and ignore another. The unionist said according to his analysis, government was setting them (civil servants) against the people.

Supporting Dlamini’s rationale was Aubrey Sibiya. The President of the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), said they had come to believe that civil servants were treated like farm labourers in the country.

He said farm labourers were at the mercy of their employer and could be told there was no food while the same meals they sought were offered to pigs. Sibiya said that was the case in his opinion of what was happening in the country.

“The important people are not catered for,” Sibiya said. The unionist said the politicians were more about their welfare, and that was evident in that when they met His Majesty King Mswati III, before presenting what they were planning to do for the country, ‘all they were concerned about was how much they would earn’.

This, according to Sibiya, evoked the question on whether the politicians were pro-people or they were more concerned about their welfare. He said the same government that had caused some households to be without a source of income due to the snail’s pace in paying suppliers, had found means to raise money necessary for the medical aid for politicians.

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