CHAOS AS SNAT BRANCH LOCKED OUT

MANZINI - Chaos erupted at SNAT Centre as members of the Usuthu branch of the teachers association were locked out when they wanted to deliver a petition to the NEC.

The incident took place yesterday at around noon, when members of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) from Usuthu Branch marched to deliver a petition to the national executive committee (NEC) over the suspension of the branch executive committee (BEC).  

As a result, they used force to gain entry to the SNAT Centre. 

When the group of about 25 Usuthu branch members arrived at SNAT Centre at around noon, they found that the gate had been locked.

They sang political songs and chanted slogans, while toyi-toying in front of the gate. They were also wondering about why they were locked out of their ‘home’.

Force

Meanwhile, some of the members tried to use force to open the gate, but in vain as they failed to break the padlock. 

As they continued to sing and dance to political songs in front of the locked gate, SNAT Recording Secretary Emmanuel Dlamini attended to them, but they demanded that gate should be opened and he went back.

Thereafter, some of the members gained entry through a small space they had created near the pole of the gate. However, some managed to lift the gate up until it reached a position where they were able to pull it out of the chain and the locked padlock from the pole it was attached to.

They opened the gate and stormed into the centre while singing and dancing to political songs. As they continued with their picketing, they realised that there was an ongoing meeting at the centre.

Automatically, the meeting was partially disrupted by the noise of the toyi-toying members. 

However, the meeting later continued despite the noise.

Later on, the Usuthu branch members had a heated confrontation with SNAT Editor Mcolisi Motsa and the bone of contention was that the editor was taking pictures of their toyi-toyi. 

They demanded that he stop taking pictures because they feared that he might use them (pictures) as evidence in court as there was a pending court case between the two parties.

Confrontation

After about 10 minutes of the heated confrontation, the members were called to order and they assembled in the veranda of the SNAT Centre building. Thereafter, the petition was handed over to SNAT Secretary General Sikelela Dlamini.

Meanwhile, the secretary general said he was not aware who had locked the gate as he found the Usuthu branch members already inside SNAT Centre when he arrived yesterday. 

It is worth noting that this is not the first time the members of the branch delivered a petition and caused chaos at the centre. 

Earlier this year, they gate-crashed and disrupted a general council (GC) meeting of SNAT as they demanded that the suspension of members of the branch and BEC should be lifted.

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