NAPSAWU PRESIDENT OSCAR NKAMBULE CALLS FOR NATIONAL WEALTH TO BE SHIFTED FROM TINKHUNDLA LOOTERS TO THE WORKING CLASS AND ITS ALLIES

Picture: NAPSAWU President Oscar Nkambule addressing delegates of the NAPSAWU Midterm Conference in April 2022.

Written by Fundizwi Sikhondze 

The National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) President Oscar Nkambule recently urged members of NAPSAWU to fight so that wealth can be shifted from the Tinkhundla looters to the working class and its allies. The president was speaking to delegates at the NAPSAWU Midterm Conference held in Matsapha and that sat on the 21st and 22nd April 2022. The conference was held under the theme, "Building the union capacity to improve workers conditions and to deepen working class consciousness". 

The midterm conference was attended by over 200 delegates of NAPSAWU representing branches and structures from the length and breath of the country. In attendance were also local and international guests that included representatives from the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), the Swaziland National Government Accountants Personnel (SNAGAP), the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT),the National Workers Union is Swaziland Higher Institutions (NAWUSHI), the Political Party Assembly (PPA) and the Multi Stakeholders Forum (MSF).  There were also guests from NAPSAWU's international allies in the form of the National Education and Allied Workers Union (NEHAWU) from South Africa, The Lesotho Police Staff Association (LEPOSA) as well as the global federation for public service unions ,the Public Services international (PSI). 

Picture: A section of NAPSAWU delegates in their midterm conference in Matsapha.

Failures to run a capable state for the benefit of the majority

To base his call for a shift in the national wealth from the current Tinkhundla regime to the working class and its allies, president Nkambule started with making an analysis of how the current regime had mismanaged the economy to the point that it was now estimated that 39.7% of the eSwatini population live under the international poverty line of $1.90 per day. He added that prospects for local initiatives towards economic recovery were not showing a positive outcomes as the country remained heavily reliant on the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) for income. Further the country still had the highest prevalence of HIV /AIDS among adults aged between 15 to 49 years which heavily drains resources and affects productivity at the workplace.

In this midst of these challenges the government was also failing to provide basic resources for public service workers to carry out their duties of providing citizens with much needed public service. This was exemplified by the fact tat hospitals were reported to be out of drugs and some were being forced to close down ,schools are also moving from crisis to the next without any support from the government and delays in the payment of schools fees for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVCs) were now endemic. 

The president further informed the conference that on top of these failures the government was now implementing a programme of retrenching workers in sections of the public service such as the Computer Services, the Mechanisation and Tractor Pool Hire ,Fuel and Quality Control as well as the Roads Department. These are assaults to workers under a false tag of reducing the public wage bill but in reality these reductions take place side by side with increasing recruitment in the armed forces.

The President concluded the class offensive on the Tinkhundla regime by urging NAPSAWU delegates to strive towards building a strong ,united organisation that will be able to withstand the battle for nation betterment.