BY MBONO MDLULI
SIMUNYE – The Federation of Eswatini Trade Unions (FESWATU) has presented Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini with a cow.
This happened on May 1, 2025 at Goshe Szokolay Memorial Stadium in Simunye when the federation celebrated the Workers’ Day. The presentation of the cow was done by FESWATU President Mashumi Shongwe, who said this was a token of appreciation to the premier for honouring the invitation extended by the federation to the PM.
The prime minister thanked FESWATU for the gifts and stated that the Government was actively working on improving workers’ conditions. He mentioned that he had received several concerns from workers through Shongwe, who addressed issues related to conditions of service for workers.
The Prime Minister noted that one of the significant concerns raised was regarding minimum wages, which Shongwe indicated needed to be reviewed due to inflation eroding the E3 500 minimum wage. Dlamini assured attendees that the Government would look into these matters. He highlighted the positive development of converting the Eswatini National Provident Fund (ENPF) to a pension scheme, stating that the process was at advanced stages and he hoped it would lead to improvements in workers’ conditions.
Additionally, the Prime Minister encouraged workers to remain diligent in their duties to ensure that their companies could sustain profits.
Shongwe further told the premier that they were concerned that some employers did not want workers to organise themselves to become labour unions so that they can address working conditions of employees.
Shongwe said employers did this by giving workers short-term contracts, so that by the time the workers organised themselves, their contracts would not be renewed.
Shongwe also frowned upon violence at work, saying workers would need their places of work in the future.
Meanwhile, acting Minister of Labour and Social Security Apollo Maphalala encouraged workers to celebrate their day and look at their achievements in their workplaces.
Maphalala also advised workers to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) because it was here to stay and it would put them at a disadvantage, if they did not want to embrace it.
