ESWATINI GOVERNMENT MOVES TO DERECOGNISE PUBLIC SECTOR TRADE UNIONS

 eSwatini government moves to derecognise public sector trade unions.

Fundizwi Sikhondze

Pic: eSwatini Police violently dispersing 22 October 2021 PSA protest in Mbabane (Courtesy Picture)

In the midst of efforts to reconcile warrying forces inside eSwatini by stakeholders such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) ,the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) to have eSwatini attain lasting peace after a year filled with civil unrest , the government is reported to be making moves to derecognise Public Sector Associations (PSAs). 

This moves is definitely  set to lead to hostilities with trade unions and by extension with civil servants, the international trade union movement reminiscent of previous instances where tensions played out in the international platforms such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) meetings in Geneva. In previous occasions eSwatini temporarily lost access to the markets in the United States of America (USA) when the USA government revoked the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) through which countries access USA markets for their products.

Officials from the PSA informed the eSwatini Labour Insight that the government held separate meetings with PSAs starting from 03 December 2021, where they put it in unequivocal terms that they (government) sought to derecognise the public sector trade unions for engaging in industrial actions outside the recognition agreement. PSA's comprise the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) ,the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) and the Swaziland National Government Accountants Personnel (SNAGAP). 

The move comes as a pre-emptive manoeuvre by the government in a mist of a  pay dispute with the PSAs that stems from an agreement that the government reached with the PSAs in 2016/2017 financial year (on implementing the last salary review) that the next salary review would be instituted in the year 2021/2022 financial year. 

The government has been engaged in a dispute with PSAs because of wanting to renege on the agreement to the anger of PSAs. The PSAs then decided to engage in mass protest on 22 October 2021 on the issue of the salary review. The government unilaterally announced their banning of the protest action and then used its state agents ,particularly the police Commissioner General  (CG) who announced that the protest as illegal. The CG made the announcement the previous day to the commencement of the protests at a time when the PSA's has gone to great lengths to meet the legal requirements to hold the protest and at that time the PSA's had gone to the extent of meeting with the Mbabane City Council to prepare routes for the protest. The government never went to court to stop the protest but used the state agencies and their violent power to achieve same.

The protest was violently taken down by the state for workers who managed to get into Mbabane that day. Other  public sector workers were blocked from reaching Mbabane and in one such incident state security agents were captured throwing teargas canisters inside a bus and then shot at protesters close range when they tried to escape the bus that had been teargassed. The image of the eSwatini government was heavily impugned by events of that day. A high school student was shot and killed by state security agents that day.

Derecognising the PSA trade unions would disable them from engaging in collective bargaining with government on any issue and would leave workers in government without a voice on their employment issues. 

The latest move by the government is likely to further alienate the government locally ,regionally, continentally and internationally and might cause more protests for workers and perhaps may cause the continuation of the civil unrest.