Mbabane—The government spokesperson, Alpheous Mfana Nxumalo, is in court requesting intervention in the payment of two months salary, which is E108,941.83, basic.
Nxumalo has filed an application at the Industrial Court under the certificate of urgency in which he challenges the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary (currently Bheki Bhembe), the secretary in the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Nhlanhla Mnisi, Accountant General Nomsa B. Simelane, and the Attorney General (AG), Sifiso “Mashampu” Khumalo, as the four respondents, respectively.
Nxumalo states that his three-year contract with the government has been breached. He said after having signed his contract, he was eager to resume work on the 1st of October 2025 and report for duty. But he says he’s not been getting paid.
According to the court documents, he is salaried at the public service pay grade F3, whose basic salary is E653 651 per annum. Monthly, it’s a E54 470.92 salary and has accumulated in two months.
Nxumalo of KaGasa in the Shiselweni region, represented by Khumbulani Msibi of Magagula Attorneys, stated that while he has not been paid for work completed in October and November 2025, he is still a family man with monthly financial obligations that are negatively impacting those who rely on his withheld salary.
His requested orders include the court directing and compelling the first, second, and third respondents to pay the two months’ salaries and subsequent additional months, as specified in the contract; directing specifically Bhembe to do everything necessary to facilitate his payment; declaring that the withholding of his salary is an incident of wrongful breach of the employment contract; and costs at the attorney and own client scale.
“I am employed by the government as a government public relations officer under a three-year fixed-term contract, which was signed on the 15th September 2025 and scheduled to commence on the 1st October 2025,” Nxumalo said.
According to Nxumalo, Bhembe is the controlling executive officer and is in charge of, among other things, authorizing the payment of salaries to employees at the Prime Minister’s office, while Mnisi is in charge of employing and recruiting, managing, and disciplining members of the country’s civil servants, and Simelane is the government paymaster, responsible for paying salaries to all government employees from the consolidated fund.
“However, I later learned that I had been placed under some suspension and prevented from taking up my post, which I have been appointed to occupy.
“First of all, before this suspension, I was never afforded a hearing by any of the respondents. Had I been heard before the decision to place me on suspension, I would have presented my side of the story on a number of issues, inclusive of whether my suspension ought to be with or without pay,” Nxumalo said.
He said instead of being consulted, he was unilaterally placed on unpaid suspension without any form of hearing prior to taking that prejudicial decision, “which is grossly unlawful under the prevailing law of this country and heavily frowned upon by our courts.”
Nxumalo says he has no other means of livelihood.
“I cannot even begin to mention the list of expenditures that I am unable to honour due to the withholding of my salary. The very fact that I cannot place food on my table is in itself sufficient because I have no other source of livelihood as aforesaid,” he said.
Nxumalo said according to his contract, he is to be paid under salary grade F3. He said the omission to pay him his salary is unlawful.
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