Communist Party of Swaziland Statement on World Teachers’ Day

5 October 2025

On this World Teachers’ Day, the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) salutes the heroic teachers of Swaziland, organised under the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), for their unwavering commitment to education, justice, and workers’ rights in the face of relentless repression by the autocratic regime.

Teachers in Swaziland continue to serve under some of the most hostile conditions in the region. They are underpaid, overworked, and systematically victimised for exercising their constitutional rights to organise and to speak truth to power. The Mswati regime has turned classrooms into sites of fear, targeting educators who demand accountability and improved learning conditions.

In open contempt for the rule of law, the government has even defied court orders, including the directive to reinstate the SNAT President and pay his outstanding dues. This blatant disregard for judicial authority exposes the regime’s disdain not only for workers’ rights but for the very idea of justice and democracy.

The CPS stands in full solidarity with SNAT and the broader working class in their struggle for dignity and social transformation. The Party reaffirms that the liberation of teachers, all workers and the entire working class cannot be separated from the struggle to dismantle the Tinkhundla system, which thrives on exploitation, poverty, and political suppression.

Teachers are builders of the nation’s future. Their fight is not just for better wages or job security, it is a fight for the soul of Swaziland, for a society founded on equality, democracy, and people’s power.

The CPS calls on all progressive forces, locally and internationally to stand with SNAT and condemn the ongoing union-bashing and repression of workers in Swaziland. True education can only flourish in a society where freedom, justice, and workers’ rights are fully realised.

Long live SNAT!
Long live the struggle of the working class!
Down with the Tinkhundla dictatorship!
Forward to a democratic and socialist Swaziland!