Mbabane- After eight years at the helm of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), Mbongwa Dlamini says he remains a teacher by profession, but whether he will return to the classroom now rests with government.
Dlamini, who recently handed over the SNAT presidency to Sikelela Dlamini after serving at the union’s helm for years, said his absence from teaching was largely a consequence of his leadership responsibilities and the protracted dispute between himself and the Teaching Service Commission (TSC).
“I am still a teacher. I was not in practice because I was serving as SNAT President; otherwise, I am still a teacher by profession,” Dlamini noted.
Speaking with this journalist, Dlamini said it was now for government to determine whether he would resume his teaching duties.
“It is within the government to confirm whether I am to go back to work. They will decide what happens,” he said.
This, his comments comes as he leaves the union presidency with his employment status still entangled in a legal battle that has followed him since his dismissal from the teaching service in August 2023.
Dlamini was dismissed by the TSC after disciplinary proceedings arising from allegations of absenteeism. He has consistently disputed the basis of his dismissal, maintaining that his absence from the classroom was connected to his work as a trade union leader, including his participation in negotiations on behalf of teachers.
The dispute has since moved through several levels of the courts.
In November 2024, the High Court upheld the Industrial Court’s decision setting aside the dismissal. The court found that the TSC had acted unreasonably and had taken irrelevant considerations into account in the disciplinary process. The effect of the ruling was that Dlamini’s dismissal was declared invalid.
The legal victory, however, did not immediately translate into a return to the classroom.
Dlamini attempted to resume his duties at Moyeni High School, but the TSC maintained that he could not return while it pursued further legal remedies. The commission also argued that a teacher who had been brought in as a replacement remained at the school.
Dlamini has described his tenure as SNAT president as a period of repeated confrontation with the authorities. At the union’s September 2026 conference, he recalled being suspended in 2019, reinstated in 2021 and subsequently transferred from Mhubhe High School to Moyeni High School. He said his salary was stopped in September 2022 before he was eventually dismissed in August 2023.
His account has been that the disciplinary action against him unfolded while he was deeply involved in trade union negotiations, particularly over teachers’ conditions of service.
The government, through the TSC, has maintained a different position, particularly on the absenteeism allegations and Dlamini’s employment status. The commission has argued in court that its actions were connected to his conduct as an employee and that the legal process surrounding his dismissal had not been exhausted.
The dispute has also placed Dlamini at the centre of a wider labour-relations struggle in Eswatini. His leadership of SNAT coincided with some of the union’s most forceful campaigns over salaries, collective bargaining, teachers’ employment conditions and the independence of organised labour.
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