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SKILLS CENTRES: GOVT NEEDS MILLIONS FOR 500 STUDENTS

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MBABANE – The cash strapped government will have to part with millions of Emalangeni to salvage the future of over 500 students from the skills centres.


This is if an agreement that would cause government to purchase the vocational learning institutions is eventually reached between the Ministry of Education and Training and the holding company Swaziland Skills Centres.


All camps confirmed to Eswatini News this week that talks for signing an agreement were reaching fruition.
At best, there was an expectation that the institution would reopen in the new year, after closing down early last year amid widely publicised disagreements between government and the Swaziland Skills Centres Management, over the absence of a Memorandum of Agreement.


skills centre Chairperson of the Board of Directors, Brian Magongo, said following lengthy negotiations, a resolve was taken that government should take over all the skills centres.


The skills centres are in Manzini, Siteki and Nhlangano.
“Government needs to buy out the owners of the skills centres.
“To be able to know how much this would cost, we need to evaluate all the machinery in the skills centres as well as several other properties that government would have to purchase.


Discuss


“From there onwards, we will engage and discuss alternatives and then the skills centres will be officially opened. You must understand that this is not an easy exercise.


“There is a lot of money involved,” he said.
Magongo said government was using the assistance of the Attorney General’s Office to ensure the agreement is equitable.
He also said the Swaziland skills centres will have to pay packages for its staff before the institution is officially handed over to government, as per the labour laws.


Meanwhile, Minister of Education and Training Lady Mabuza urged students of the institutions to be patient as there was light at the end of the tunnel.


Light


“I can say that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
“We have been engaged in talks with the owners of the skills centres and things are shaping out well.
“Students must please be patient because this process is very complicated,” she said.


The minister said students must understand that coming to a conclusion on the issue was a tedious process.
“We want to resolve this issue now and forever, which is why we are handling it with care,” she said.


A distraught student, Khulekani Mdluli, said had the institution not closed down, he would have long graduated and joined the employed masses.
“But we are still sitting at home hoping something would happen each day. This has dragged on for too long, such that our careers are being ruined.


Continue


It remains to be seen if we would continue with the programmes we were doing or start afresh because the institution closed midstream.”
Mdluli said the students were not folding hands, but piling pressure on government to do something to re-open the institution soonest.
“We have marched to the Ministry of Education and Training several times to seek audience with the minister.


Pleased


We will be pleased if indeed something is being done,” he said.
Several teachers employed by the Teaching Service Commission are getting paid while sitting at home, waiting for the institution to re-open.


Trouble started when the Auditor General found that government was subsidising the Swaziland Skills Centres with over E8 million per year, yet there was no MoU to warrant this.

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