By Zweli Martin Dlamini

It was very unfortunate to see Lecturers of the Southern African Nazarene University(SANU) protesting in demand for their full salaries,these developments are symptoms of an escalating education crisis.

Lecturers,by their nature,are educated individuals who believe in handling issues professionally and in accordance with the law, the fact that they have opted to protest on the streets with placards means they have reached the ceiling of their financial frustrations.

The current Tinkhundla regime led by King Mswati is not prioritizing education and from primary schools, Government is failing to provide resources,highly qualified teachers are employed on contracts while monies for Orphans and Vulnerable Children(OVCs) are delayed resulting to Headteachers struggling to manage schools.

The education crisis then escalated and resulted to Government forcing former University students to repay what was described as scholarships loans and despite the introduction of that program,the eSwatini Government failed to provide scholarships to deserving and qualifying students.

It is very unfortunate to note that Mswati appointed Owen Nxumalo as the Minister of Education, this is a politician with a serious convincing face but, you will absolutely get nothing out of it except propaganda.

Now,we are seeing Lecturers being paid their salaries in installments, a salary is very sensitive in that, it involves budgets and loans, tempering or delaying it, automatically destroys and disorganize the lives of the Lecturers.

Releasing a memo informing the Lecturers that their salaries might be delayed does not solve the issue,in fact it devalues the profession and reduces the chances of these Lecturers to secure loans with banks due to the uncertainty, banks conducts risk assessment before approving a loan application.

Being employed is not enough if there are doubts suggesting that, you might not get paid, the Tinkhundla Government is deliberately destroying even Lecturers and this clearly indicate that,this country does not have any future.

We haven’t seen police officers, soldiers and warders complaining about delays in the payment of their salaries but instead,we are seeing the drivers of the country’s economic future being intentionally frustrated.

Maybe,we need a person who will come from the sky and inform us that this country has collapsed and as I have always mention in some of my articles,King Mswati is so lucky to rule over a Nation that takes time to see what is going wrong.

This is a Nation that takes time to rise until things get worse.

I am sure that some of these Lecturers were previously against University students who were protesting against Government in demand for scholarships until they get affected as well.

This is a Nation of “I don’t care as long as it does not affect me” and by the time they get affected and react, it’s normally too late.