FIRE PERSONNEL, COPS IN STAFF BUS STANDOFF

MBABANE – Refusal! A stand-off was witnessed on Sunday between some personnel from the Eswatini National Fire and Emergency Services (ENFES) and police officers.

This follows that the firefighters showed defiance when they refused to alight from a staff kombi hired for them as a staff bus. This was after their shift had come to an end around midnight.

The employees were defying the newly-effected three-shift system, which stipulated that employees would work eight hours only and no overtime would be allowed. According to the system, employees are transported within a 20-kilometre radius from their workstations. This was effected on October 1.

However, when the employees were dropped off at Luyengo yesterday night from their workstations in Mankayane and Bhunya, they refused to alight from the staff kombi, stating that the vehicle should drop them off at their homes, not in the middle of nowhere.  

Midnight 

It was gathered that when the old system was still effective, the fire personnel would find means to get home as they knocked off at around 8am, instead of midnight, after working overtime.

The genesis of the matter is that the Industrial Court dismissed an application in which the ENFES personnel were seeking an order to stop the implementation of the circular that stopped the payment of overtime, among other issues.

It was reported that government had saved over E20 million by cutting overtime payments for the firefighters who were working 12 hours instead of eight a day.

 According to one employee, they had knocked off at around 10pm at Mankayane Fire Station when they boarded the staff kombi, headed home. The employee stated that when the staff kombi stopped at Luyengo, where they were supposed to be dropped off, they refused to alight.

“We blatantly refused to get off the kombi. How do they expect us to get home at awkward hours of the night without any transport?” the employee questioned. 

The 20-kilometre radius ended at Luyengo yet some of the employees reside in Matsapha, Logoba and surrounding areas, which are not in close proximity to Luyengo.

Another employee shared that the kombi returned to the fire station with them still on board, where police officers were called by the station officer to intervene in the situation. 

“The police called us and requested that we should alight but we still refused. It was then that they (police) also returned to their workstation and left us at the (fire) station,” the employee said. As a result, he said they spent the night at the station without doing any work. 

“We won’t go to work with the stipulated 20-kilometre radius still in place. We are not doing this because we are fighting the new system, they should at least provide us with transport to take us to our homes, not to be left along the road even in the middle of the night,” the employee said. 

Another stated that it was difficult to get accommodation close to their workstation.

“I cannot waste my money and fuel my car to work when there is a staff vehicle. My car is my personal car. The institution should find a way of ensuring that we get to work and home safely,” another said.

ENFES Public Relations Officer Herbert Shabangu confirmed the incident. He said he believed that this was because the issue of overtime claims which were stopped on October 1, 2020. 

He explained that the workers had made claims in overtime to the tune of E22 million and this was a burden to government, which was currently in a fiscal crisis. Shabangu added that there was a new shift system for employees to work eight shifts. 

Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati also confirmed that the police were called to intervene in the matter.

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