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SNAT PRESIDENT MBONGWA DLAMININ HAS BEEN FIRED BY THE ESWATINI GOVERMENT



Picture: SNAT President Mbongwa Dlamini (Image courtesy of SNAT platform)

As of Wednesday 30th September 2023 the President of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Mbongwa Ernest Dlamini (pictured above) has been fired by the Teaching Services Commission (TSC) of the Ministry of Education on behalf of the Government of Eswatini. These news were announced by the SNAT Secretary General Lot Gadaffi Vilakati in the morning of the 30th August 2023 in Mbabane. 

Comrade Lot announced the unfortunate news to scores of workers that had gathered  at the Ministry of Public Service office block for a protest organised by the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) to decry the shortage of health workers and key medicines in the public health system in Mbabane.

Secretary General Lot added that SNAT will stick with the president through and through and that if the government was fatally mistaken if they thought president Mbongwa would be discarded or disowned by SNAT now that he has been fired from work by the government. He said "We want to assure the TSC that if they thought by firing the President he would cease to be the SNAT president then clearly they are wrong". He also promised hell on whosoever took part in making the decision to fire the SNAT President within the ministry of education as well as the TCS. SG Lot went further to pledge that henceforth  SNAT will be  rude ,vicious, ruthless  towards the ministry of education and TSC officials, further he promised that there would be mass action who detailed plans will be advised about in due course. 


Pictured Above: SNAT Secretary General Lot Vilakati (r) addressing workers during the protest by SWADNU in Mbabane on the 30th August 2023. Standing next to him is SWADNU PresidEnt Nokuthula Dlamini.

Secretary General Lot then passed words of appreciation to the federation, TUCOSWA, as well as to the sister Public Service Unions (PSU's) for supporting SNAT throughout the period in which the  SNAT has faced government charges and many other forms of intimidation.  

Meawhile, speaking at the same gathering ,the TUCOSWA President Bheki Mamba condemned the treatment of the SNAT President and vowed that TUCOSWA will continue to support and defend ,tooth and nail, the SNAT President . He added that TUCOSWA had been duped by the government when they had ,after engagements, pledged that the cases against the President Mbongwa would all be withdrawn. The TUCOSWA president further reported to the gathered activists and leaders that TUCOSWA was currently preparing a report to send to the ILO regarding the treatment of the SNAT President. 

The President of SNAT had been found guilty of all 109 charges that had been levelled against him by the Ministry of Education on Monday, 28th of August 2023 .The charges were related on absenteeism from duty and have been largely seen as the continuation of intimidation and an infringement of his basic trade union rights by the government on president Mbongwa. During the period of the proceeding of the case President Mbongwa's salary was even stopped by the government ,an act that was only reversed upon president Mbongwa  having challenged the matter and getting a decision in his favour at the Industrial Court.  

The Health Crisis

In his address during the delivery of the petition Secretary General Lot also passed remarks in reference to the health crisis to the effect that teachers lives had also been lost because of the lack of key medicine in the public hospitals. He added that to SNAT they regard the health crisis to be deliberately made by people who have special interests to extract as much profits from the sector as possible. He further pledged SNAT's undying support for SWADNU in their endeavour to highlight challenges in the health sector.

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