- Both organizations express concern over Eswatini’s deep socio-economic and political crisis
- Both parties identify issues of corruption and nepotism as being buoyed by a pervasive culture of institutional patronage
- Parties both agree that jobs are the best insurance against poverty
Photo Credit: www.insidebiz.co.sz
By Ntokozo Nkambule
Business Eswatini and the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) today held a press briefing titled “Bipartite dialogue to encourage peace and unity in the workplace, while promoting prosperity for all by way of jobs, concluded at the Happy Valley Hotel in Ezulwini (10-11 May 2022)”
The primary aim of the dialogue held ten days ago was to identify and deliberate on the issues which pose a threat to existing jobs or stand in the way of creating new employment opportunities for EmaSwati. There were a number of deliberations, one of them being that both parties agree that the current education system needs to be reconfigured to address skills challenges. BE’s Chief Executive Officer Nathie Dlamini noted that they were still compiling the full report pertaining to the dialogue and would share it with the key stakeholder, the government. “The report will be shared with the key stakeholder; being the government, with the hope that the issues identified shall be pursued at a higher level such as by the tripartite.
Some of the Issues where parties were in agreement
- The need to reconfigure the education system to address the skills challenges including responses to the effects of the fourth industrial revolution; and the urgent need for government to avail training incentives to employers who upskill their workers
- The need to create a tripartite platform to deal with issues of employment protection and job creation, such as the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Natural resources and Energy
- The importance of research and development was emphasized especially its relevance in responding to the challenges identified in the thematic areas
- Political will is necessary not only at the government level but also at the enterprise level between employers and workers to implement sound policies that build the economy for the betterment of the likelihood of all EmaSwati
- The parties identified the issues of corruption and nepotism that were opined as being buoyed by the pervasive culture of institutional patronage
- The existence of trade unions is a human rights issue and cannot be done away with. It was thus agreed that trade union recognition is a matter of law, and where there are rights, they cannot be simply disregarded by others without justification