By Wandile Dludlu.
Africa-Press – Eswatini. History turns out to be the best teacher because often times, things have a tendency to happen exactly the same way but the new ones will think “it’s new”.
We once had a very great man, Cde Albert Heshane Shabangu, he was not only one of the solid members of the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC) , but actually a trained Pan African erstwhile products from the highly regarded University of Ghana, the home of Kwame Kruma.
Shabangu came back home and taught in various schools across the country, such as Sikhunyane and Mhlume High School, to mention but a few.
The Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) elected him to be their longest serving President of yesterday years.
The cadre was so inspirational that the teachers organization once again became a lethal and vibrant weapon in the hands of not just teachers but ordinary Swazis who benefitted in the pro poor push the union gave against Tinkhundla.
In a closed and oppressive environment, that’s what unions must do, being the voices of their members and society in particular.
Tinkhundla feeling the mighty force of the sagacious and pragmatic leadership of the union as they always do, hatched a plan, they came with a carrot, “Mr Shabangu you are hereby promoted to be an Inspector”, a move every teacher would hate not to love.
The leader correctly read the move as nothing but a pretentious ploy fraught with a malicious intent to weaken the union, he declined the promotion, more so because it was for a field he was not professional trained for.
Tinkhundla embarrassed and angry took up a fight against him, he was suspended without pay and SNAT members took a decision to pay his salary directly from their salaries to ensure their leader is not successful embarrassed by Tinkhundla.
It was a progressive decision forever correct we should be taking to each one victimized by the cunning snake called royal aristocracy.
Alas, the mighty also fall, one day after such a great record, Tinkhundla through the National Radio as always, announced the royal appointment into Cabinet of Mr Shabangu.
This is tactics by all regimes from the days of Julius Caesar “use your enemy” Tinkhundla will always silently and quietly read very closely each organization and individuals of interest inside one sector to the other.
They will softly lobby you and prey on your flaws, pressure points and or infallibility as a human being, that’s what Tinkhundla managed with this mighty man and astute graduate of Krumah like many others.
We need to appreciate that not only did these individuals serve Tinkhundla Cabinet for decades but were placed in strategic Ministries, Tinkhundla was under the Deputy Prime Minister’a Portfolio then, here people with political minds trained by progressive benefitting a regime they were opposed to.
They were now tasked with a mammoth task of “making sense of the Tinkhundla nonsense” they carried this task more even than their Tinkhundla guys because your enemy when working for you, has far more intrinsic duty to go an extra mile to prove his or her loyalty to the same.
This is exactly why, Shabangu had to counter workers with the much hostile Industrial Relations Act of 2000 responding to the 1996 mighty wave led by the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) and political parties.
Not only did this piece of law tighten screws, it made water ,electricity essential services and as a result, unions under these sectors were legally not permissible to strike something that gave SFTU edge in collapsing economy each time they was a strike.
When Tinkhundla faced dilemma between Swazi Nation Land and urban areas, powers of civil Government and service delivery, Shabangu brought a whole Professor friend from Nigeria as a consultant to develop the so called Decentralization Policy which Tinkhundla paid for but castrated because it was viewed as a ploy to diminish the traditional structure’s powers.
Lastly true to a convert, when NNLC made a roll call of its products who are working with and for the establishment inclusive of this once mighty firebrand, he was so angry that he literally approached the High Court, dismissing that historical record.
In essence dear comrades and unionist alike, as you join these Boards and such like endeavors, be careful of the old same predator that prowls like a cunning carnivore, which keeps maneuvering during the day as priest for good news whilst devouring it’s prey by the night perpetually.
