BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) has been praised for being able to handle the situation that was about to get out of control during the May Day celebrations yesterday.
The celebrations were held at Prince of Wales Sports Ground. Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo said the police were able to ensure that people were protected and safe during the celebrations. He said this showed how dedicated the police were in their work.
He said when compared to other policing organisations in the SADC Region, the REPS was one of the best. According to Nxumalo, what the police did showed that they were well trained and knew that everyone there had to be protected.
Before the event started, Nxumalo said the police were already manning security around areas next to the Prince of Wales. He described them as people who knew their game when it came to controlling the crowd. Nxumalo pointed out that during the time when the PM was about to speak, some people had taken intoxicating substances.
Because of that situation, some people were no longer controllable, but the police were able to do their job with honour and dignity, ensuring everyone’s safety. What is interesting is that TUCOSWA Preisdent Bheki Mamba had announced that the leadership of TUCOSWA had agreed that the police had to be asked to leave the Prince of Wales arena.
However, such a thing never happened because the police sensed that something dangerous could happen and everyone’s life would be in danger. Meanwhile, Nxumalo challenged the leadership of different unions under TUCOSWA to ensure that they clean their May Day celebrations and make decisions to only focus on workers’ issues. Below are some of the issues raised by the unions yesterday:
- Ensure that minimum wage is at least E3 500 per month.
- Working conditions should be improved for all workers in the work place.
- Public Sector Unions want negotiations on CoLA and they had been asking for this since January, without response from Government.
- Textile workers should be paid at least E15 per hour.
- Landlords in areas such as Matsapha should be regulated because now, they charge rent fees anyhow and their accommodation is substandard. Their houses are leaking and their compounds have no toilets.
- Government should not encourage nurses to be exported, because that shows lack of commitment on the side of Government.
- Public schools should be improved so that Emaswati could get quality education, in order for them to give quality services when they work.
- Workers should not be victimised when doing activities of unions because that is union bashing. Examples made were that of SNAT President Mbongwa Dlamini and SWATCAWU Secretary General Sticks Nkambule.
- Scholarships should be provided for all students who deserve to be at tertiary institutions.
- People should be allowed to march to deliver petitions on the streets.
- Elderly grants should be increased to at least E1 500 per month.
