Picture: SNAT President Mbongwa Dlamini addressing the 28-30th September 2022 SNAT Conference where he was re-elected unopposed in Matsapha, Eswatini (pic credit: SNAT Social Media Platforms)
Written by Fundizwi Sikhondze
On
Tuesday the 29th August 2023 the Eswatini Government dismissed the
President of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Mbongwa
Dlamini from its employment as a teacher. Their correspondence stated that, “The
Commission (Teaching Service Commission) has, according to section 36(F) of the
Employment Act (1980), decided to terminate your services as a teacher with
immediate effect”.
The
dismissal of President Mbongwa has been met with strong condemnation that point
to trade union and human rights infringement. It is also viewed as only the
latest harassment move by the Eswatini government to quell a popular call for
democracy and restoration of full human and trade union rights. This is
probably because in the lead up to his dismissal he has been subjected to
intense harassment by state security apparatus more severely towards the end of
the 2022. The harassment was so severe that he allegedly had to leave the
country for safety for a few months between late 2022 and early.
The
charges for which he was eventually dismissed constituted at least a third
attempt to charge and dismiss him. The harassment started off from the onset of
his tenure as president in 2018, has relentlessly continued until now. He was
as a result suspended from work in 2019 pending the finalisation of his case
for a period of close to two years. When it had been proved too complex for the
matter to proceed, perhaps counting on the political cost given the nature of
the charges, the government then retreated, reinstated him back to work albeit
in a new school, only to issue fresh in late 2022.
In
June 2002 the government claimed that President Mbongwa’s issuance of a
precaution to teachers against reporting to work on 29th June 2022
,for their own safety, constituted amongst others, hatred or contempt toward
the Government of Eswatini and brought the teaching service into disrepute.
Even
before the ink on the new charges had dried, in October 2022 fresh charges were
drawn up, this time for being absent from duty for one hundred and nine (109)
consecutive days without permission from the employer. To add salt to the
wound, as from November 2022, the government began withholding his salary.
The
disciplinary panel commenced their sessions in late November 2022 while
simultaneously the SNAT challenged the withholding of President Mbongwa’s
salary at the country’s labour court. The labour court ruled in his favour and
against the government in March 2023 but be that as it may the government
blatantly refused to resume the payment of the President’s salary.
All these events were
taking place in what turned out to be a busy political year for President
Mbongwa and the SNAT who held a successful elective congress on 28th -
30th September 2022. In this congress President
Mbongwa was re-elected to the position of president unopposed and therefore
with a very strong popular mandate. Such popular support within and outside the
SNAT has also translated into strong mass support for him as the government
tightens the noose around him.
The
trade union movement led by the federation, the Trade Union Congress of
Swaziland (TUCOSWA) as well as affiliate trade unions together with civil
society organisations have out rightly condemned the actions of the government
against the SNAT President. For trade unions the dismissal of President Mbongwa
is not a once off strike s another trade union leader Sticks Nkambule the Secretary General of the
Swaziland Transport, Communications and Allied Workers Union (SWATCAWU) is also
currently in hiding and is suspected to be in exile trying to evade state
harassment. The Secretary General of the Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland
(ATUSWA) Wander Mkhonza was also suspected to have suffered the burning of his
house by suspected state agents when he led workers on a strike action in the
months of April and May of 2022.
Picture: A poster created by the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) in support of President Mbongwa of SNAT
The
plight of President Mbongwa during this whole period has attracted the
attention of fraternal teachers’ organisations such as the South African
Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU), the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of
Zimbabwe (ARTUZ), the Southern African Teachers Organisation (SATO) as well as
the global federation for teachers unions, the Education International (EI). The Trade Union Congress of Swaziland
(TUCOSWA) has also used the ILO reporting mechanism to report the case within
the ILO system.
For
now it is comforting that the SNAT through the Secretary General Lot Vilakati
has already affirmed their full support for President Mbongwa particularly in
the sense that the dismissal will not affect the president’s serving his full term
in the union until the end in 2026. This is an important push back against the
government, the employer, not to be allowed to determine the agenda and
leadership of trade unions.
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