BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE –Finally.
The Civil Service Commission (CSC) is working on how it can re-instate the 54 civil servants that remain suspended from around 2010.
CSC Chairman Simanga Mamba said there were about 54 civil servants that have been suspended from around 2010. He said this today in his speech that he delivered after the CSC commissioners, including Mamba, were sworn in.
The swearing-in ceremony took place at the CSC boardroom in Mbabane.
Mamba said this in response to a concern by Minister of Public Service Mabulala Maseko, who, in his remarks during the ceremony, charged the CSC with the responsibility of looking into how they dealt with the suspended civil servants.
Mamba said the CSC was already working on that matter and they had set up a task team to work on recommendations. He said what was found was that about 54 civil servants had been suspended since around 2010.
“We were surprised because when we re-instated someone who had been suspended in 2012, he resigned immediately after resuming work and that showed us that the person had been enjoying the steady income he had been earning during his 14-year suspension,” Mamba said.
He said the suspensions on the civil servants were as a result of criminal charges laid against them and in terms of the Public Service Order of 1963, they were suspended. He said with the Ministry of Public Service, they were working on looking if the suspensions were still serving the right purpose. Some were suspended for transgressions of maybe E10 000 and they ended up being paid for 60 months, while they were sitting at home.
Mamba also told the commissioners and those who attended the event that they were also in the process of operationalising the CSC, which was set up in terms of the Constitution of 2005. He said there was a need for the enactment of the Civil Service Act, which had to be enacted with Civil Service Regulations, which were going to operationalise the CSC Act.
Mamba also reminded the public that the King in Taiwan made it clear that those who were learning in overseas countries such as Taiwan should also send their curriculum vitaes (CVs) to Eswatini Embassies in the countries they were studying. “The students are expected to serve in the public and private sector because countries such as Taiwan, Morocco and Serbia are giving us their scholarships because they also want us to be like them,” he said.
In conclusion, Mamba said there was a need for what he termed as the skills gap to be done so that skills needed in this country could be identified, with an intention of filling those gaps. He believed that the countries mentioned above could help Eswatini to implement this exercise.
After the swearing-in, the commissioners were given laptops and copies of the Constitution so that they could be able to work. The CSC intends to waste no time, as its first sitting is scheduled to be on Wednesday (May 29, 2024).
