BY MBONO MDLULI
LOBAMBA – The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has ordered the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to facilitate the payment of fire fighters, without delays.
This was said on April 10, 2025 in the House of Assembly when the Housing Ministry appeared before the PAC. During the session, it appeared that the Government auditors, under the leadership of Auditor General (AG) Timothy Matsebula, detected an under-expenditure in the Ministry, where an amount of E17 million had not been spent.
The E17 million had been budgeted for the payment of overtime allowances for fire fighters who work for Eswatini National Fire and Emergency Services (ENFES). When the PAC, which was chaired by Nhlambeni Member of Parliament (MP) Manzi Zwane, enquired why the E17 million was not spent on the overtime allowances, Ministry of Housing and Urban Development Principal Secretary Dr Simon Zwane said it was found out that the management of ENFES, under the leadership of Chief Fire Officer (CFO) Luke Lushaba, claimed that the fire fighters did not qualify for the overtime allowances, as they were supposed to work for a period of at least 208 hours in a month.
However, that claimed is said to have surfaced after the courts had ordered the ENFES to pay the overtime for its workers. The matter is said to have been deliberated at the Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CMAC), which is said to have ruled in favour of the firefighters. The matter is also said to have been deliberated by the Industrial Court and the High Court, with both platforms said to have ruled in favour of the workers. The ENFES is said to have been given until July 24, 2025 to have made the payments.
The PAC did not understand why such an issue re-surfaced after the courts pronounced themselves on the matter. All the members of the PAC took turns in ordering the Ministry to ensure that the payments were done. The legislators felt as if someone within the ENFES, which is a department under the Housing Ministry, was trying to spite the workers, by making sure that they did not get the money. However, the PAC members failed to understand what this particular person stood to gain after spiting the workers.
The lawmakers pleaded with the management of the ENFES to work on this matter without involving emotions because the courts were clear, and Parliament also made it clear that the workers should be paid. The MPs also stated that a precedence was set on this matter, as the Ministry of Home Affairs also encountered the same problem with its immigration officers, who had to be paid their overtime allowances.
They said the same matter was deliberated in Parliament and Minister of Public Service Mabulala Maseko paid the immigration officer. The matter lasted for about two hours, as the matter wanted to provoke some emotions to the MPs and some of the firefighters who went to Parliament to find out what the eventual outcome would be.
During the deliberations, Lushaba was given a chance to shed some light on the matter. He stated that they were still working on the matter. Lushaba further told the MPs that he would be happy to have a judgement that would order ENFES to pay the workers. However, he was eventually corrected by the MPs, who stated that the judgment made it clear that in July, ENFES had to approach the court to confirm payment. In that case, what he had said could not be true.
In response, Lushaba submitted that the judgment actually said they should pay workers that qualified for the overtime payments. At some point during the debate, the MPs felt that some of the workers’ representatives should move from the public gallery into the House of Assembly chamber to shed some light on what happened on the matter.
Vusumuzi Dlamini and Msimeto Malindzisa, who are both firefighters and also members of the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), were the ones who offered to give information. Dlamini wondered how Lushaba arrived at the conclusion that no firefighter qualified to be paid the overtime allowances because he had not processed the claim forms submitted by the workers. Dlamini said Lushaba only ordered the immediaste supervisors of the workers not to sign the forms. That, according to Dlamini meant that the forms were not processed and submitted for payments.
Dlamini also made it clear that Lushaba was the one that was frustrating the overtime payment processes of the workers. Malindzisa said the issue of the 208 hours was just an afterthought. The overtime was not computed after a month, but it was computed on daily basis.
