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MINISTER’S WARNING TO TINDVUNA OVER UNIONISING

By Kwanele Sibiya | 2024-04-26

There is tension mounting between members of Parliament and their constituency headmen, who are now being feared to be forming a collective bargaining unit.

MPs are becoming suspicious following a number of activities that have been organised by the group, which has made no secret of their events.

As a result, concerns have been raised with the Minister of Tinkhundla Administration and Development, Sikhumbuzo Dlamini, who also was bullish in his response on Wednesday during the portfolio committee meeting.

Notably, the minister referred to the group as a union. “I can clearly state that as a ministry, we do not recognise the union or organisation that tindvuna tetinkhundla are trying to establish, however we are willing to engage with them on issues pertaining to their welfare.”

This was during a meeting between the officials from the ministry and the ministry’s Senate portfolio committee held at the George Hotel. The minister was responding to a question which was posed by the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee Prince Gcokoma.

According to the prince, he received an invitation from Kwaluseni Indvuna Yenkhundla Mthunzi Dlamini to a gathering of constituency headmen (tindvuna tetinkhundla) at Mayiwane.

Although he had not committed to attending the gathering, the prince said he had then recalled seeing in local newspapers that tindvuna had been alleged to have formed a union, supposedly to represent all the 59 constituency headmen.

He therefore probed the officials from the ministry if it recognised such a union.

“Since when has the law allowed tindvuna tetinkhundla to self-regulate,” the prince asked during the session.

In response, the minister said the country, as well as the system of governance under the Tinkhundla System of Governance does not allow for the formations of unions as is the case under the civil servants sector. He said if they could allow such to occur, then it would not be long before Cabinet could form its own union, resulting in disputes that would stall their duties, yet what was key was for them to serve the electorates who elected them.

However, he mentioned that it was, an undisputable fact that their welfare has to be highly considered and they were grateful that His Majesty had assigned a team that would look into such affairs.

“I can clearly state that as a ministry we do not recognise the union or organisation that tindvuna tetinkhundla are trying to establish, however we are willing to engage with them on issues pertaining to their welfare,” he said. According to the minister, the union was formed by about 15 tindvuna tetinkhundla, against a backdrop of the sizable number of tindvuna countrywide.

He said the handful number of tindvuna tetinkhundla elected themselves into leadership positions within the organisation, who now claimed to speak on behalf of all the others, ‘yet there was no instrument that they used to form such a union, whereas if they had approached the ministry and asked it to unite them to form an organisation that would look into their welfare, such a request might have been acceptable’. “However, as things stand, a group of men just took advantage and came together to spearhead this so-called union, so that they could live a better life under the disguise that they are representing people. Unfortunately, we do not recognise such an initiative as a ministry,” he said.

He mentioned that they were receiving calls from some of the tindvuna tetinkhundla who were against the union, given that they were not of the same view regarding the activities of the group.

The minister said this proved that the group of tindvuna tetinkhundla who were advocating for the formation of the union were just a minority.

He alleged that each time they invited whosoever they were inviting, the tindvuna tetinkhundla would not divulge the pure motive of the alleged union but rather that they would pretend as though the ministry, the regional secretaries and the principal secretary were all well aware of their existence.

“As a ministry, we know nothing about this union apart from the fact that they have resolved to convene some sort of gatherings. For instance, it has come to our attention that they will be having an outing and we will not stop it because it is not our duty to do so,” he said.

However, he said when the tindvuna tetinkhundla wanted to deliberate about their welfare, the ministry was willing to engage them, but it would not do so via the alleged union.

‘We have not formed a union’

“This is just merely a misrepresentation of facts as we have not formed any union but rather an investment scheme whose intentions is to ensure the welfare of tindvuna tetinkhundla when our term of office elapses.”

This was disclosed by Kwaluseni Indvuna Yenkhundla Mthunzi Dlamini.

According to Dlamini, reports that they had formed a union were far from the truth. He mentioned that they had learned from previous experiences that tindvuna tetinkhundla and bucopho would wallow in abject poverty when their term of offices elapsed and through the formation of the investment, they were trying to prevent a repetition of the same scenario. Moreover, he said just like all Emaswati, they had a right to convene and discuss issues that were of particular significance to them. Dlamini said they reported everything they were doing during their gatherings to the ministry of tinkhudla administration and development as well as the regional secretaries. He said through the gathering they were also trying to establish order ina as far as the duties of the members of Parliament (MPs), bucopho and tindvuna tetinkhundla were concerned.

This, he said was because there were times whereby MPs would be found wrongfully encroaching and executing duties that were solely designated for bucopho and tindvuna tetinkhundla and vice versa.

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