BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – Government is of the view that the Workers’ Day celebrations organised by the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) yesterday was hijacked by certain political parties.
Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo, in an interview he had today with Eswatini TV’s Kusile Breakfast Show, said the atmosphere between the executive members of TUCOSWA and the Government officials were cordial, until the event was hijacked by certain formations which started speaking about certain political matters, which were not relevant to the bread-and-butter issues that affected workers.
He said the political formations tempered with the public address system when Minister for Labour and Social Security Phila Buthelezi was still speaking. At that time, Nxumalo said members of these political formations were now singing struggle songs, with an intention to sabotage efforts by Government to make the address. He said it was then that the prime minister and the ministers were advised to leave because the situation was about to get out of control.
In Nxumalo’s view, people were swayed from focusing on the agenda of the day when TUCOSWA’s guests were given an opportunity to give messages of solidarity. Some of these groups included political formations such as the Political Party Assembly (PPA) and civil society groups such as the Coordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental Organisations (CANGO).
Nxumalo said workers had shown excitement to have the prime minister to go to them on their special day and address them on issues affecting them. The spokesperson said the PM declared upon assuming his position that he was going to adopt an open-door policy. It was in this spirit that he decided to honour the invitation by TUCOSWA because he wanted to demonstrate consistency in his promise.
The spokesperson stated that the premier wanted to extend his hand to the workers and work with them as partners. According to Nxumalo, the time for workers and Government to view each other as enemies should come to an end. Nxumalo reminded Emaswati that even the PM and ministers were workers and therefore, they had to work together with unions to improve the country, as mandated by the country’s Constitution and His Majesty the King.
