THREATS OF UNESWA WORKERS’ PROTEST DURING GRADUATION

MANZINI – Some employees of the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) have threatened to protest during the upcoming graduation ceremony, which will be held at the Kwaluseni Campus.  

Members of the Association of Lecturers, Academic and Administrative Personnel (ALAAP), took to the university’s administration block to deliver a petition over grievances of no cost-of-living adjustments, demanding a forensic audit into the university, remitting of pension contributions, and the alleged high remuneration of undeserving individuals in the university. The petition delivery took place yesterday. Worth noting is that the university will be hosting its graduation ceremony on October 8. ALAAP Chairperson Sibusiso Nhlabatsi submitted that they had been hoping that the management would call them by the end of last week or early this week (Monday) to a joint negotiation forum. However, he said this was not the case.

Calculations

“They said they were doing some calculations. You will recall that at first they made an offer of three per cent and they were not making an offer at all for commuting allowaces,” Nhlabatsi relayed. According to Nhlabatsi, the management then said since the staff was insisting that they would rather keep the three per cent offer, it would calculate the costs. He said management was still calculating. The chairperson shared that they were informed that management would take their submissions to council yesterday, so that it could discuss the issue. Nhlabatsi said they were not sure if their issues were on the agenda or not. “But what we are getting is that they are trying to avoid having a joint negotiation and the priority as you can see, is on the graduation. So it’s surprising that the university is always playing the money card, the bankruptcy card and fiscal crisis card, but what we are seeing is that the graduation will be hosted and it is clear that millions of Emalangeni will be spent there,” he said.

The chairperson highlighted that even the administration block was being painted because the chancellor would be present and would use it during the course of the ceremony. He wondered how the university would inform him about the challenges of the university. He was of the view that the issue of fiscal crisis was neither here nor there. Instead, Nhlabatsi said it was just a rhetoric that they were playing, because they got news that the new chairman of the council was getting paid, regardless of the fact that the issue was raised. This issue was raised in Parliament.

Priority

“This means to us as unions, we must up our game and confront management because it’s clear that to them we are not a priority. So it should be made known to them that if we don’t get our demands met in time, we will attend the graduation but we will turn the graduation arena into a protest stage. We will be there for protesting,” Nhlabatsi stated. He further mentioned that they would not disturb the graduation but would be there to protest, so that it could be known to the whole world that there were issues at the university. The chairperson added that the management had promised to respond to them by the end of last week on issues of commuting allowances. However, he said the response was unsatisfactory. He said it would seems as though the management was being evasive.

Meanwhile, UNESWA Registrar, Dr Salebona Simelane, said he was aware that the staff was engaged in a protest. However, he stated that he was unaware of what the grievances were.
“There is a structure that they ought to follow but I don’t believe they did that. I did not receive anything from them in writing, nor any communication,” Simelane said.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: