Africa-Press – Eswatini. Mbongwa Dlamini, the President of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers(SNAT) says, the teachers organization will not withdraw its affiliation or funding of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland(TUCOSWA) despite the ongoing tension with the current leadership under Secretary General Mduduzi Gina.
This comes after Gina sued SNAT Secretary General Lot Vilakati for alleged defamation, he is demanding five hundred thousand Rands(R500,000.00) as compensation for what the TUCOSWA Secretary General described as defamatory statements made at SNAT Centre during a meeting for the Public Sector Associations(PSUs).
“It’s true that SNAT is the largest funder of TUCOSWA and we are affiliated to the federation as an organization. So what you need to understand is that, there’s nothing wrong with TUCOSWA as a federation and we can’t withdraw and destroy the federation just because of one man or other infiltrated elements within the federation. We will use the upcoming congress to elect the new TUCOSWA leadership and restore the vibrancy of the federation. You see in such situation, you must always demonstrate maturity, as a union we cannot exist without a federation, we must be affiliated to the federation so TUCOSWA is one of our pillars,” said the SNAT President.
On another note, the SNAT President said the tension did not start with the lawsuit against Secretary General Lot Vilakati but, it escalated after the federation supported the conversion of the Eswatini National Provident Fund(ENPF) into a National Pension Fund without a collective resolution.
“We told the TUCOSWA leadership that our members are against the conversion particularly the involvement of civil servants and tempering with their pension. But Gina and some Executive members rushed to support the conversion saying we agreed and the tension erupted,” he said.
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