Swazi Observer

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PM CALLS FOR CHANGE OF MIND-SET

By NOKUZOLA THWALA | 2024-04-23

Prime Minister, Russell Dlamini, has maintained that government jobs are not a privilege, saying the mentality that all nurses must be hired was shallow thinking, calling for a change of mind-set.

The prime minister based this on assertions that government should absorb all graduate nurses.

Dlamini reiterated the same sentiment he shared at the ‘Business to Government Engagement’ where he noted that some people felt entitled to employment by government by the very fact that they had completed their degrees and they, therefore, must be employed by government.

At the meeting, the premier said the truth was that once the country wants to maintain and to keep all skills locally, if one had a degree they should also have life skills to make sure that they survive and make a living - not just a living, but a good living.

Pointed

He pointed out the stark contrast between engineers and teachers highlighting that when engineers, do not find jobs locally, they find them elsewhere, saying they did not fight the government and demand, and that the same should apply to teachers and nurses.

Teachers and nurses unions, however, said the prime minister was misinformed and proposed a meeting where they could articulate the challenges they were faced with as working professionals in the country.

When addressing guests at the launch of the Eswatini Nursing Leadership Initiative worth E18 million (US$1 million) at the Hilton Garden Inn yesterday, he pointed out this did not mean more nurses should not be produced.

Instead, he said there was a need to produce as many nurses as possible so that they could replace those leaving the country. Further, the prime minister said the attrition of nurses should not be a cause for concern.

“The cause for concern should be how fast the nurses could be trained and developed to replace those leaving the country for employment elsewhere,” the prime minister pointed out.

Dlamini also said they must embrace attrition in all strategies and plans, be it in academic institutions or at production level in the industries, which may be personnel or products alike.

Emphasising, he advised that all strategies must be oriented towards exporting because the country’s economy was low and could not absorb all that is produced within the country.

“Because our country cannot absorb all the graduating nurses, we must embrace attrition in our strategies and plans because that will be proactive and not reactive. The attrition of nurses should not be a cause for concern, the cause for concern should be how fast we can train, develop nurses to replace those who are leaving.

I think that this is the thought or mind-set that we must have, this is the truth and we need to change the mentality,” said the prime minister.

He further stated that the strategies at all levels must be oriented towards exporting because the country’s economy was low and could it could not absorb all that it produced.

Eswatini has been selected as one of seven countries in Africa to benefit from the Nursing Leadership Initiative, which is funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

The initiative is meant to empower the nursing workforce to perform optimally, lead, adapt, and thrive in the face of evolving healthcare challenges and more.

‘Close gap between lower nursing cadre, veterans’

The gap between the lower nursing cadre and veterans must be closed as the difference cheats Emaswati of quality nursing.

The Prime Minister, Russell Dlamini, said there was a need to close the gap and expressed his wish of having the lower nursing cadre present at the event as well, since there was a gap between the nursing veterans and the lower cadre. This was at the launch of the Eswatini Nursing Leadership Initiative at the Hilton Garden Inn. He highlighted the need to tackle the causes of these gaps at the root cause and not seek to treat the symptoms. Dlamini added that there was need to strengthen the nursing purpose hence the need to close the gaps, which have consistently led to the conflict between government and the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU). The premier said these differences robbed the nation of the quality the nursing sector would offer pointing out that not all citizens get the necessary healthcare because of the gaps. “It is good to know some of the successes that our nurses have done in our various institutions. Nursing Sister Mnqobi Maseko said we must move our focus to prevention,” stated the prime minister. He further said they would continue to encourage institutions of higher learning to produce more qualified nurses, knowing very well that government would not absorb them.

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