Mbabane — A strike called by Swaziland's largest teachers' union demanding a below-inflation salary increase is beginning to spread across the country - after the government refused to entertain any wage demands - and has led to sporadic clashes and arrests.
"There is no money to pay teachers a 4.5 percent increment. They have been told this again and again," Education Minister Wilson Ntshangase told the media. Inflation is currently running at about 9 percent.
Strikes by the 9,000-strong Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) began on 25 June 2012. Government spokesman Percy Simelane says all teachers who take part in the strike will be fired; he has called the teachers "delinquents and criminals".
On 28 June public transport was also hit after the Swaziland Transport and Allied Workers Union (STAWU) joined the strike. The government has applied to the industrial court for a 30-day detention order for the SNAT leadership.
"As expected, a court order was sought [by the government] to declare the strike illegal and was granted by a government-appointed judge, but because this happens whenever a strike is called in Swaziland the aggrieved parties take to the streets anyway. But it gives the security forces a green light to attack us," Amos Dlamini, a striking teacher from the Manzini region, told IRIN.
"That [firing teachers] would certainly cut down on government's wage bill, because a majority of teachers will be dismissed. But it shows government sees education as a political battleground, not as a national crisis that needs attention. As an African teacher I wonder why I am not respected. Why do some African leaders give lip service to the importance of education but do so little in terms of policy and expenditures?" a striking teacher in the second city of Manzini, who declined to be named, told IRIN.
SNAT has members in primary and secondary schools, and also in some tertiary institutions. According to the union, 30-50 percent of Swaziland's 153 primary and 172 secondary schools have so far been affected by industrial action. The government has ordered school principals to keep the doors open, but in the absence of teachers, lessons have been disrupted and in some urban areas there have been incidents of students joining their teachers in street protests.
It is unusual for whole schools to empty and children taking to the streets like this.
"It is unusual for whole schools to empty and children taking to the streets like this. I've never seen anything like this that is so widespread. This is not the Swazi [practice] to be confrontational or disrespectful to police and authority, and you can see these children are very frustrated and angry," Felicia Simelane, a seamstress whose shop provided a bird's eye view of a confrontation between police, students and teachers in Manzini, told IRIN.
The average monthly wage (before tax) for a primary school teacher is about US$470 and $700 for a secondary school teacher.
Arrests
Several students in Manzini and three teachers in the capital Mbabane were arrested on 26 June 2012 for allegedly throwing stones at riot police, who have so far responded with tear gas and warning shots, according to police spokesperson Superintendent Wendy Hleta. A further 25 teachers were arrested on 27 June 2012 on their way to peri-urban schools to encourage teachers in those areas to observe the strike, according to the union.
"We are tired of going to school where there is no water for the toilets, no electricity and food that makes you sick to your stomach. The teachers are abused because they are paid peanuts. We know where the money goes in Swaziland. We know who has it," Nhlanhla Mkhonta, a secondary school student in Manzini, told IRIN.
King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, has increasingly been criticised for his and the royal household's spending habits.
A teacher, who declined to be named, told IRIN: "These children are not revolutionaries, they are just Swazis who feel Swaziland should belong to all Swazis and the resources of the country should be used for everyone. As a teacher it breaks my heart... These children are suffering because they don't have a functioning science lab or even a decent soccer pitch."
A significant drop in revenue from the Southern African Customs Union in the wake of the global economic slowdown helped precipitate a financial meltdown in Swaziland. A key IMF recommendation was that Swaziland's public sector workforce be trimmed by 10 percent. But with private sector unemployment estimated at more than 40 percent, analysts say the government fears large-scale public sector retrenchments would spark unrest.
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
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THIS MONSTER WHO IS A FALSE KING WHO HAS NO CLUE SHOULD BE VOTE OUT WITH PROTEST AND ALIENATION FROM HIS CONCEITED AND ARROGANT POWER. HE WANTS THE PEOPLE TO LIVE LIE SEFS SHOWING THE WORLD HOW MUCH OF A CLASS ASS HE IS . HE IS A MORON WTIH NO SIGHT OR RIGHTEOUSS THINKING HE IS NOT IN THE TRADITIOIN OF BLACK KINGS OF ALL FRICA , THE LAST KING WE SAW IN AFRICA WAS THE KING OF ETHIOPIA. HE SAT ON ATHRONE LIGITMISED HGY TIME FROM THE TRADITION OF ADAM NOAH MOSES ABRAHAM LOT DAVID SOLOMAN ISSSIAH ELIJAH AND THE MANY OF THOSE WHO WERE STRONG IN THE VERY AFRICAN TRADITIONS THAT ENVELOPED ALL AFRICA. HIS MAJESTY HAILIE SELASSIE 1 KING OF KINGS LORD OF LRDS CONQUORING LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH"" THIS TITLE WAS GIVEN NOT BY MAN TO BE JOKE TO MANKIND BUT A VISIONS THAT WOULD HAVE BROUGHT ORU LINK FROM THE EARLIEST OF CREATION STRAIGHHT FORWARD TO THE DAYS WHICH WE LIVE IN TODAY. OUR HISTORY IS A LONG ANCIENT AND BLESSED HISTORY WE ARE ALL CONNECTED WE ARE ALL ONE BLOOD AND YOU NEED TO KNOWTHIS. UNTIL THE DEMISE OF HIS MAJESTY HE WAS THE MOST HIGH RANKING PERSON ON THIS PLANET AND NO ONE ABSOLOUTELY NO ONE WAS HIS EQUIVALENT. HE STATURED THE UNITED NATIONS AND HE OUTLINED MANY THINGS FOR AFRICA WHICH IS NOT BEING OBSERVED BECAUSE OF MIS INFORMATION AND STUPIDIITY. WE MUST ALSO KNOW HE WAS THE ONE OF THE ONLY KINGS IN MODERN TIMES WHO LED HIS ARMY FRTOM THE FRONT. THE KING LED HIS TROOPS INO BATTLE ASSIGNING HIMSELF A MACHINE GUN WHERE HJE SAT AND DEFENDED THE ETHIOPIAN PEOPLE. NOT JUST ETHIOPIA BUT AFRICA. IT WAS HIS DUTY TO SAFE GURAD THE TRUTH OF WHOM WE ARE AND WHAT OUR EXISTENCE ENTAILS HE WAS KNOWN AS KING OF ALL EARTHLY KINGS THIS WAS TESTIMONY OF HIS LONG AND ROYAL TRADITON WITH "OUR LORD AND CREATOR THE ALL MIGHTY GOD" MANY OF US WONT EVEN RECOGNISE THAT WE ARE THE EARTHS MOST ANCIENT OF PEOPLES WE ARE TRADITONAL BOUND AND THE CONCEPT OF "THE ALL MIGHTY" IS ONE OF AFRICAS AND ITS BLESSED PEOPLE". KING OF ALL KINGS IS TO LET NOTICE THAT THE KINGS IN AFRICA HAD TO SEEK THE GUIDANCE OF THE KLINGS OF EHTIOPIA HWERE THE ISRAELITE TRADITION PREVAILED THRU THE BLOOD LINE OF SELASSIE" BLACK AND COMELY"THIS HE WROTE IN REGARDS TO HIMSELF IN THE BOOK OF SOLOMAN2. READING WITH SIGHT THEN LINKING TRUTH AND FACTS TOGETHER IS MUCH EASIER THAN YOU THINK. WHEN YOU OPNE YPOUR HEART AND SEE THE TRUUTH BEFORE YOU WILL BOW BEFORE" HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF CREATION""OUR ETERNAL LORD" WHOM HAS NO HUMAN BEGINNINGS AS WE ARE PART OF HIS CREATION HE IS NOT PART OF OUR CREATION WHICH IS WHAT WE ARE BEING LED TO BELIVE BY THE CONCEPT OF THIER CHRISTIANITY. WHEN WE HEAR ABOUT THE MOTHER OF GOD????HOW IN THE WORLD IS THAT POSSIBLE IT IS AFABRICATION LACED WITH DISINFORMATION LIES HYPOCRISY FILTH AND DISTORTIONS. IT IS TIME FOR US TO LOOK TO FIND AND SEARCH FOR TRUTH. WE ARE THE INVENTORS OF ALL THE WORLDS SCIENCES THE INVENTORS OF THE LAWS OF HUMANITY. WE DID NOT SIT AROUND FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS TWIDDLING OUR THUMBS CONTRARY TO WHAT THEY WANT US TO BELIVE. WE HAVE BEEN WIZE TEACHERS NOT WAR MONGERS NOT KILLERS AND MURDERERS AS THEY WANT TO POTRAY US THEY USE ALL TYPES OF MEDIA PRESSENS TO DISPELL THE TRUTH OF WHOM THEY ARE WHAT THEY PRACTISE AND HOW THEY HAVE TRANSFOMED THAT UPON THE BLACK MAN. WQE WATCHED IN CENTRAKL AFRICA WHILE THEY BRUTALY SUPPRESSED OPPRESSED THE BLACK PEOPLE DISMANTLING THIER SOCITIES INHUMANLE ENSLAVING THE POPEL THRU TORTURE RAPE AMPUTATIONS . THE THINGS WE HEAR OF TOADY ARE LEARNED TACTICS THAT HAVE BEEN ASSIMILATED BY THE PEPLE OF AFRICA. WEE SEE THE WAY WE DEAL WITH EACH OTHER THEY SELL US THESE THINGS TO KILL INJURE AND HURT EACH OTHER. I WILL SYA AGAIN WE WOULD MOURN FOR MOONTHS SHOULD WE HAVE INJURED ANY OF OUR BROTHERSW. OUR WARS WERE BASED IN DANCE AND PROTEST WHEN THE OTHER OUTLASTED OUT MANUEVERED THE OTHER WE WOULD DECIDE A WINNER, THE THINSGS GOING ON IN ALL AFRICA IS WRONG IS STEEPED IN THIER TRADTIONS OF BRUTALITY PARTIALITY BIAS OPPRESSION. THESE ARE WEAK TRAITS WHICH WE HAVE RISSEN ABOVE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO. WHAT YOU MUST ALSO KNOW IS THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE TAKEN US BACKWARDS IN TIME WAY BACK TO A TIME WE HAD NOT KNOWN SO THEY WER ABLE TO TELL US WHAT THEY DID WAS RIGHT , WHEN IN FACT IT WAS WRONG.THIS LITTLE ARROGANT KING MUST GO THE PEOPLE NEED TO FIND THIER TRUE KING THE "EVERLIVING KING AND MAKER OF ALL CREATION " WE ARE HIS SUBJECTS TO WHOM WE OWE OUR ALLIGIANCE"HE" ALONE IS MASTER" HE" ALONE IS ABLE TO DECIDE WETHER WE CAN LIVE OR DIE!!! MAN HAS NO SUCH AUTHORITY. THE 'AFRICAN UNION' ADAPTED STRONG PRINCIPLES WHICH THEY UNDERSTAND NOT WHAT THEY MEAN. THY MEAN WHAT THEY STAND FOR THAT WARS SHOULD BE ABOLSIEHD THE NEED FOR HUMAN ENDEAVOURS BUILT AND SURRONDED BY RIGHTEOUSNESS SHOULD PREVAIL. I AM NOT SPEAKING TO YOU ABOUT SOME STONNINGS OR HEAD CHOPPED OFF OR ANY OF THESE ARCHAIC DECISONS THAT ARE MADE BY FALSE REPRESENTATIVES OF ;LIES AND UNTRUTH. THE THE WAY FORWARD IS WITH LOVE PATIENCE THSE ARE ATTRIBUTES OF "OUR CREATOR"AND "HE"EXPECTS US TO HAVE THESE CHARCATERISTICS "HE" IS PERFECT SO ARE WE"!!!!!!!!! CHOOSE WHAT IS RIGHT "THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH BUT THE GHIFT OF THE "ALL MIGHTY GOD" IS EVER LIVING LIFE" WHAT APPEALS TO YOUR SENSES ALCOHOL WHOREING HOMOSEXUALITY TEENAGE PREGNANCIES ABORTIONS THESE ARE YOUR GIFTS FROM THEM TODAY. WHICH IS MORE SPIRITUALY UPLIFTING AND MENTALLY? DO WE WANT TO LIVE OUR LIVES PRETENTIOUSLY ANOT REACHING OUR APEX?? ARTE WE DESTINED TO BE A DEPENDENT WEAK PEOPLE ALWAYS BEGGING FOR HAND OUTS? HWERE IS ORU HONOUR DIGNITY PRIDE SELF PURPOSE???WHERE IS OUR GREAT AFRICAN CULTURES EMPIRES CIVILIZATIONS GON. I HAVE SHOWN AFRICA THAT AFRICA WAS ALWAYS ONE ;THE TRADITIONS OF EVERY "THE BIBLE THE QUARAAN" WE HAVE ESTABLISHED THESE THINGS FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS WE MUST NOT BOW BUT RESTABLISH WHAT IT IS THAT WAS OUR STRENGTH!!!!!!!