COPS THWART SNAT MARCH TO CABINET

MBABANE – The plan to deliver a petition by SNAT over the non-employment of contracted teachers failed.

This was after police officers used force and blocked protesters from attempting to march or walk towards Cabinet offices to deliver the petition to the Acting Prime Minister Themba Masuku. SNAT is an acronym for Swaziland National Association of Teachers. Police from the Operational Support Services Unit (OSSU) and other colleagues blocked over 800 protestors who marched from opposite the National Blood Blank, where they had assembled singing struggle songs from 10:30am until 11:30am.

Deliver

The plan was to deliver the petition at noon. Protestors marched from the Blood Bank heading towards Cabinet and all was well until they reached the Mbabane Government Hospital junction, where police were found already forming a human wall, blocking the road and refused the marchers to pass through. An attempt by the protesters to force their way through was not successful as several stun grenades were shot by the police to prevent them from coming any closer. The protestors ran helter-skelter but re-grouped again and were addressed by their leaders on the prevailing status quo. Another attempt to negotiate with the police by the executive to deliver the petition peacefully failed. This resulted in the executive addressing the protestors on their next move, which was to re-group and stage another mass protest action, which would be taken to all the country’s regions.

Addressing the demonstrators, SNAT President Mbongwa Dlamini stated that they wanted to set the record straight and the world to know how the country operated. Dlamini said police made it clear that they would not allow them to continue marching to Cabinet offices and gave technical explanations supporting their position. Dlamini said the reasons given by the police were that they had received an instruction from the Principal Secretary in Cabinet, Sindi Mbingo, to allow only members of the executive to deliver the petition.

Refused

He said as an executive, they refused because they always met with them and the reason SNAT members were invited was to show that they were the ones who had sent them. 

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