REVIEW SALARIES TO AVOID ADVANCES, SAY UNIONS

MBABANE – The reason there has been a surge in applications for salary advances by government employees is the high cost of living.

This is what civil service unions – National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) and the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) – observed.

Early this week, it was reported that the Accountant General’s Office issued a memorandum to the effect that all advances to government employees were suspended until further notice. The reason cited was cash flow problems in government.

Minister of Finance Martin Dlamini, on the other hand, had said as far as he was aware there was no cash flow problem, but the memorandum was an attempt to discourage advances to employees because the demand had become very high.

Quinton Dlamini, NAPSAWU President, said the surge was a sign of the current challenges civil servants faced in their daily living because their present salaries lagged behind with regard to current costs of commodities.
He said it had been a long time since the last salary review, and the increments they have been getting from government in the past few years were too meagre.

“Salary advances, to a certain extent, have become a way of coping with cost of living.
So when this benefit to us as government employees gets suspended without our say, it just becomes baffling. The bottom line is that we need better salaries,” Dlamini said. 

SNAT Secretary General Muzi Mhlanga said many civil servants were swimming in debts and found it hard to cope with the financial demands of daily living. He said many were members of finance lending companies such as Blue Finance, Select and a host of private shylocks.

“The cost of living is increasingly becoming unattainable, so that’s why we as a union are calling on government to speed up the review of our salaries. I think the last proper review happened in 2004, which is 10 years ago. Last year the salary increment was only 4.5 per cent, this year three per cent. Remember that public transport fares have been increased by 25 per cent for this year only,” Mhlanga pointed out.

He said salary advances, even though were not the ultimate solution, provided a bit of space for civil servants to breathe. He further said government was also reluctant to give loans to civil servants because of the legislation that disallowed the deduction of owed money from their pension.
“We cannot even rely on local banks for loans because they decline even if one qualifies. Now that salary advances have been stopped, the question is how many will cope?” wondered Mhlanga.

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