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WE WON’T BACK DOWN, VOW JUNIOR OFFICERS

13/10/2022 08:33:00 Stanley Khumalo

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MANZINI – This is war for our salaries!

Lowly ranked personnel in the two law enforcement agencies (REPS and HMCS), who are demanding the implementation of Phase II of the salary restructuring exercise, have responded to the statement by the National Commissioner (natcom) of Police, William Tsitsibala Dlamini. REPS is the Royal Eswatini Police Service while HMCS stands for His Majesty’s Correctional Services. Dlamini, through the office of the Chief Police Information and Communications Officer, Superintendent Phindile Vilakati, on Tuesday said, as a police service, they bore witness to a shocking act of ill-discipline and defiance when a group of police and correctional officers marched to deliver a petition to the Cabinet Offices on the now much publicised matter of Phase II of the salary restructuring exercise.

He said: “This unfortunate act was despite the fact that the minister of Public Service has held several meetings with the Police Staff Association and leadership on the matter and last Friday he issued a statement outlining progress and how this issue would be addressed going forward. As a police service, we would like to state that such behaviour goes against the set standards of acceptable code of conduct for its members.”

In response to this, the junior officers said they were governed by the Police Service Act of 2018, which in Section 67 specified what was the role of the Police Staff Association. The Police Service Act of 2018 in Section 67 (1) reads: “There shall be established an entity to be known as the Royal Eswatini Police Service Staff Association whose main objectives shall be, in consultation with its general membership and the national commissioner, to make representations to relevant Government Negotiation Structures on social and welfare interests of the Police Service, which includes but not limited to remuneration, salaries, allowances or any other payment, pension or conditions of service.”

Fear

Given this law, the officers said they did not fear anything as they were in a war to improve their salaries, which was a mandate assigned to the staff association by the Act governing them. The officers said they did not wake up and decide to deliver petitions; but had at instances engaged the management of the REPS in seeking that their issues be addressed as well.
“We did nothing wrong other than to elevate our quest to be paid in a manner which will compensate us for the risks and astute behaviour we have to uphold at all times. We delivered a petition to our minister (of police), who is the Prime Minister (PM), Cleopas Dlamini,” one officer said in their responses to the NATCOM.

The officers said the delivery of a petition to the PM was a resolution of members, which was taken in their meeting at Caritas, Manzini this past Saturday. The officers said this resolution was within the ambits of the law that regulated their formation and they were not deterred by any intimidation as they expressed their concerns to the minister responsible for their welfare.
The officers further quoted Section 67 (3) of the Police Service Act of 2018, which reads: “The Royal Eswatini Police Service Staff Association shall be independent of and not associated with a body or organisation outside the Police Service, including any impediment or undue influence from non-members in the execution of its mandate.” They said the Act also stated that membership to the Royal Police Service Staff Association shall be open to members of the police service below the rank of assistant commissioner. The officers said: “The executive of REPS should not seek to influence decisions by the staff association as they are not members.”

Restructuring

The junior officers were of the view that the management would be ecstatic that the staff association members had taken their mandate to government seeking the implementation of Phase II of the salary restructuring exercise following the partial implementation done in 2014. One of the officers rallied the other members of the staff association to return to Cabinet on Tuesday to get responses from the premier as they were within their rights. Following the submissions shared by the various members of the Police Staff Association, its Secretary General Sergeant Dumsile Khumalo said: “The members informed us on Saturday that we should now take a backseat as they were going to take the issues in their own hands. So, I can’t say much on the issue anymore.”

Meanwhile, the Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati said there was no war in this issue as the NATCOM was addressing it. She said Dlamini was visiting all regions to engage police officers on these issues. Vilakati said the Police Service Act had the code of conduct on how police officers had to act. She said there were also policies which guided the manner in which police officers had to handle themselves.