Eswatini Labour Insight

  Pictured Above: Workers marching to King Sobhuza II Stadium,Nhlangano (File Picture) Written by Fundizwi Sikhondze The Eswatini Parliament through the office of the Clerk to Parliament has released a public notification  informing the public of public hearings for the contentious piece of legislation, the Eswatini National Pension Fund Bill, 2025 (Bill No.13 of 2025). The public public hearing process according to the public notice will be to the portfolio committee of labour and social security as they are currently in the process of reviewing the bills. Further the announcement stated that submissions can be made both in writing and orally. The email for the submission is as follows; elubumbeni2@gmail.com or adminparl@swazi.net The ENPF Bill (2005) is a legislative piece that seeks amongst several objectives to ,establish the Eswatini National Pension Fund (ENPF). to convert the Eswatini National Provident Fund to the Eswatini National Pension Fund, to make provision for...

Pictured Above: SATU members in a meeting (File Picture) The daily newspaper the Times of Eswatini (7th August 2025 edition) reported that trade union ,the Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland (SATU) had expressed unhappiness at the delay in convening of the sectorial Wage Council for security guards at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. SATU through their Secretary General Frank Mncina explained that any delay in the implementation of the COLA for security guards inadvertently disadvantages them financially because the finalised COLA at the wages council is never backdated. SG Mncina further vowed to call a nationwide protest action to deliver a petition at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to call for them to convene the wages council. At that time of the news story (7th August 20205) the finalisation of the dates of the protest action was pending preparations including letters written to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the Mbabane City Council, the Roya...

  Pictured: Principal Secretary, Ministry of Public Service Mthunzi  Shabangu.  (Picture sourced Online) On Saturday 16th August 2025 the Ministry of Public Service issued a media statement announcing that the salary review (and jobs grading) consultants,Umelusi  Consultancy and Emergency Growth Consultancy, had delivered the draft report to the employer (the government) on Friday 15th August 2025. This was in line with the collective agreement signed between the Government Negotiations Team (GNT) and the Public Service Unions (PSU's) on the 9th August 2025 on the timelines of the delivery and implementation of the report. The statement, signed by the Ministry's Principal Secretary Mthunzi Shabangu, further provided that the next step in the process would be for the ministry to arrange a date where the report will be delivered by the consultant to the parties where it is expected that the consultant will present the main findings as well as recommendations. The parti...

Image: Pension depicting image sourced online   The Public Services Pension Fund (PSPF) announced on Monday 11th August 2025 that they will  adjust the monthly annuities to the close to 11 000* retired public services workers by 4.2% in respect to a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for the year 2025. The announcement further stated that the adjustment would be effected on August 2025 and will be backdated to April 2025.  The spouses (around 7356*) and dependents (around 7267*) of deceased pensioners are also expected to benefit from the COLA adjustment. The retired public service workers who are beneficiaries of the PSPF include retired central administration officers, retired teachers, retired nurses as well as other public health services workers, retired prisons wardens, retired police officers, retired army officers and retired educators from basic education institutions as well as public colleges.   Cautious excitement The news was met with a sense of cauti...

NAPSAWU President Bawinile Ndlovu in a victory pose with Acting Secretary General Msimeto Malindzisa together with representatives of the Mechanisation and ICT workers (Picture credit: NAPSAWU Facebook page). The National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU) scored a major victory in their collective bargaining efforts when they reached an agreement with the Eswatini government ,through the Ministry of Public Service and Administration ,for the re-absorption of twenty two (22) workers from the computer services under Information and Communication Technology (ICT) ministry as well as the Mechanisation section of the Ministry of Agriculture. Mechanisation workers were mainly those employed in roles such as tractor driving and maintenance and ICT workers were employed in the former computer section under the Ministry of ICT. The dispute ,according to a NAPSAWU document prepared for Members of Parliament on the issue, emanated from a correspondence dated 24th March 2021 wh...

  Image Source: an image sourced online depicting a Pension Fund Written by Fundizwi Sikhondze  The Eswatini Government released a Government Gazette Extraordinary dated 10 th July 2025 which turned out to be the long awaited Eswatini National Pension Fund Bill 2025. The Bill has been long awaited within the workers movement for several years as they have always campaigned for the conversion of the fund into a full pension, and in January 20205 the Eswatini Government cabinet had given a green light to the conversion of the Eswatini National Provident Fund (ENPF) into a pension. In their statement at the time they gave the Minister of Labour and Social Security the baton to ensure the achievement of the pension by introducing the necessary Bill in the legislature.   It ought to be mentioned out rightly that the issuance of the Bill has not been received with equal excitement amongst workers particularly public service workers who have raised fears that the new Bil...