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SNAT EXECUTIVE’S ACTIONS PORTRAY TERRORISM - MABULALA

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MBABANE – “The actions of the SNAT executive portray terrorism.”

Minister of Public Service Mabulala Maseko, said these words when responding to concerns by the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) executive that he had branded the teachers’ union a terrorist entity. The minister said yesterday that his pronouncements came from the perception that the SNAT executive was associating itself with terrorists. He said these suspicions were compounded by the negative and nasty comments made on social media, also questioning the union’s alignment with terrorists. He said the SNAT executive must not make him a scapegoat but use this as an opportunity for introspection. “The membership is well-behaved but the executive does not have any good intentions,” he said.

Engage

Maseko said the SNAT executive had to engage its membership before taking decisions to make a donation to someone linked to acts of violence in the country. He was referring to a recent incident in which SNAT Burial donated a casket to the late Mlandvo Khumalo, who shot and wounded a member of the King’s regiment (umbutfo). Khumalo had been declared a member of the Swaziland Solidarity Forces. The donation was later revoked.
The minister said if the intentions of SNAT burial were pure, then they could have donated to the victims who died at the hands of the deceased.

“A chief was killed and a video taken before the murder, but nobody bothered to donate for him, despite the position he held in society,” the minister said. Maseko said if the casket was a marketing strategy, then it was not well calculated. The minister said the SNAT executive had lost direction.
“They have blundered and now realise that they do not have support from their membership.” The minister said the actions of the executive to ignore the members’ welfare was SNAT’s downfall. Maseko alleged that in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the executive did not make any donation of either masks or sanitisers to the teachers.Had they done this, he said, it would have shown how much they cared about their members’ welfare.

On another note, Maseko said if the SNAT executive was professional, they would have intervened in the chaos which happened in schools, resulting in them being burnt down among other things. Instead, he said, SNAT was always in the forefront during protest actions. Maseko said the organisation also hosted meetings which were political in nature, led by unions which were anti-government - their employer. However, he said as a ministry, they had not yet branded SNAT as a terrorist entity, although their actions and characteristic showed that they were revolutionary and supported terrorist actions.

He said after the donation to the Khumalo family, comments made by some people, especially on some social media platforms, were evident that SNAT should declare its position. Maseko said the members of the public, including SNAT members, did not support the action of donating a casket for Khumalo. He said the deceased, who was killed by the security personnel, was also on the police wanted list, but SNAT chose to support him.
Maseko stated that some SNAT members registered their concerns as they were no longer happy with the executive. “The SNAT executive should call a meeting and see how many of their members will show up,” he added. As such, Maseko said teachers regretted having elected the current executive into office.

Meanwhile, SNAT Secretary General (SG) Lot Vilakati said Maseko’s utterances of threatening to deregister the organisation for supporting terrorists were part of the reasons they felt they were being branded as terrorists. When asked on whether the union bothered to engage the minister to clarify his statement, he said they had not had the chance to do so. “We realise that these are very serious allegations and wish to engage the minister,” Vilakati said.

Speaking on their SNAT platform page on Wednesday afternoon, Vilakati said their name had been dragged through the mud by high profile individuals, something that had attracted the attention of the police, who were following them. He said they had been harassed by the police in their premises. Vilakati said the police did not follow proper channels, including showing their search warrants. This, he said, they did not tolerate and would engage the national commissioner (NATCOM) of police on the issue. On the issue of following SNAT, leaders, the Chief Police Information and Communications Officer, Superintendent Phindile Vilakati, said anyone who felt unsafe should come to the nearest police station.

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