Swaziland has recently witnessed an uproar from public sector unionists as a result of an announced pay rise for police officers. Unions such as the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) have reacted negatively to the proposed 30 percent increase. This anger has sprung from the unbalanced effect of this new legislation. The money offered in security staff’s pay rises is being removed from the education sector.
One of the central reasons for such an incensed response from Swazi teachers and their unions is a previous statement from the Swaziland government. When teachers held protest actions in 2012 asking for a 4.5 per cent pay rise, the government alleged it could not afford to pay more.
“There seems to be little evidence to suggest why junior police officers are being offered such a relatively large payrise when other civil servants are not,” said SNAT President Sibongile Mazibuko. “When we went on strike last year, we were stopped by a royal order, and did not receive anything.”
The government must try to carefully control the balance of fairness among the civil servants of Swaziland, or they will invite in civil unrest.
The National Public Service and Allied Workers Union’s President Quinton Dlamini reiterated that teachers and other civil servants treated in the same vein will not overlook this seemingly trivial injustice caused by the government.
“Unless the increases are standardised across the public service, we will definitely not allow that to happen,” Dlamini said. “If it means fighting against it, we will do that.”
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