Africa-Press – Eswatini. The much-anticipated salary review exercise for civil servants will kick off this month.
This was revealed by the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Public Service Sipho Tsabedze on Friday. The PS revealed these developments when responding to questions which were posed by this publication regarding an assertion by some public service workers, who said being a civil servant had degenerated to a worthless status, because of the poor wages they were paid. The PS acknowledged the concerns and said this was not an easy matter, especially during such trying times. He said the world economy, including that of the Kingdom of Eswatini, was not doing well.
“However, government had been trying based on its financial muscle over the years. Government cannot promise its workers a salary adjustment, which it cannot afford to pay, due to cash flow challenges,” the PS said.He emphasised that what government had been putting on the table as an offer for civil servants’ salary adjustments over the years was based on its financial muscle – what it could afford to pay. Thereafter, the PS said this month (June 2024), the salary review exercise, which civil servants, through their unions, had been demanding over the years, would start.
“This month (June 2024) the consultant will kick-start the exercise, and surely it will partially address the concerns of the public sector workers regarding their low salaries, which are not enough to enable them to cope with the ever-soaring cost of living,” the PS said. When this publication asked more about the commencement of the salary review exercise, the PS said he could not divulge much, because such information was yet to be revealed to the relevant stakeholders during the Joint Negotiation Forum (JNF).
Dispute
He said this should have been communicated to the stakeholders by now, but the challenge was that efforts of having a JNF were not fruitful, because of the dispute which everyone knows about. The Public Sector Unions of Swaziland Secretariat welcomed the developments. The secretariat, which was speaking through the voice of Mayibongwe Masangane, who is the Secretary General of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU), said this was good news to them as civil servants, because it means the recommendations could be implemented next year. He said according to the terms of reference, the consultant should not take more than 12 months.
It is worth noting that in the last JNF, which was held on Wednesday, May 9, 2024, the government team walked out of the meeting, because of the presence of Mbongwa Dlamini, who is the President of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT). According to government, the SNAT president was not supposed to be part of the JNF, because he was fired from work by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), but the Public Sector Unions of Swaziland’s argument was that the court ruled that the leader of the teachers union should go back to work.
This matter is still pending before the court, following government’s appeal of the judgment. Strikingly, civil servants’ salaries were last reviewed during the 2016/17 financial year and procedurally, they should be reviewed after five years, which means that the salary review exercise was supposed to be conducted in the 2021/22 financial year. However, due to cash flow challenges and delays in hiring the consultant, the exercise was also delayed. Civil servants, through their unions, have been demanding that government should conduct the exercise.
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