By Bongiwe Dlamini

MBABANE:Eswatini Government has been refusing to replace teachers and nurses who died or retired but instead,hire soldiers,the police and Correctional Services officers to fill-up the vacant posts.

As a result, the eSwatini government is not only facing shortage of working equipment in hospitals and schools but teachers and nurses resulting to a health and education crisis.

A questionnaire was sent to Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo,however,he had not responded at the time of compiling this report.

Reached for comments on Tuesday evening,Lot Vilakati, the Secretary General(SG) of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers(SNAT) confirmed knowledge of the matter adding that, since 2018 Government has been refusing to employ teachers despite the availability of posts.

“The law is clear that whenever a school is constructed, employment posts are created. When Zweli retires, a vacant post is created and then Lot comes-in to fill-up Zweli’s post. But now, all of a sudden, we are told that there are no posts.Teachers are no longer transferred to the schools of their choice, those who retired are not replaced, no employment for teachers. They are stealing our posts to employ security officers,that one is evident enough, no further proof is needed on this, it’s clear. We are going to demand the employment of more teachers and we want our posts that were given to soldiers. It has even happened whereby we saw payslips in the various schools for people we don’t know in the schools. Abatse uyafunwa lomuntfu akatiwa, that means the school is paying a salary for someone who is not in the school”, said the SNAT Secretary Genera(SG) when speaking to editor Zweli Martin Dlamini.

On another note, Mayibongwe Masangwane, the Secretary General(SG) of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union(SWADNU) told this Swaziland News that, the Ministry of Public Service whose Minister is Mabulala Maseko, has been refusing to replace nurses.

“We have seen this happening and we have complained several times to the Ministry of Public Service. What they normally do, they hire security officers instead of nurses to fill-up our vacant posts”,said the Nurses Union Secretary General(SG).

It has been disclosed that, as a result of the Government decision to destroy the education and health system while strengthening the institutions of the police, soldiers and correctional services, teachers are migrating to Taiwan, Ireland, South Korea and the United Kingdom(UK) among other countries.