Mbabane – Public sector unions in the Kingdom have called all civil servants to a mass meeting at the SNAT Centre on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, at 10:00am, following a Joint Negotiations Forum meeting held on Monday over the government’s apparent plan to withhold notching from civil servants’ salaries this April.
The unions, which include SNAT, NAPSAWU, SNAGAP and SWADNU, met with government representatives at the Ministry of Public Service on Monday, April 13, from 10:00am until 1:12pm, after receiving intelligence that the government was planning to unilaterally waive and revoke civil servants’ right to notch in April 2026.
According to the unions, Government General Order A208 requires all civil servants to notch on the first of April of each new financial year, and the matter was never a subject of debate during salary review negotiations because notching is considered an automatic right of every civil servant under the five levels of the Patterson Method. 
The unions said the notching issue arose against the backdrop of a salary review exercise that was supposed to be implemented in 2021 but was only rolled out nine years later in October 2025, which the unions attributed to what they described as government negotiating in bad faith. Under the 2025 Salary Review Exercise, both the Government Negotiating Team and the public sector unions agreed on Scenario 3, with full implementation of the recommended salary scales by consultant Emergence Human Capital. Fifteen percent back pay was implemented in October 2025, with the remaining 85% balance set to be deposited into civil servants’ bank accounts in July 2026.
The unions said notching was never contested during those negotiations because it is an automatic entitlement, making the government’s reported plan to withhold it a source of serious concern.
The mass meeting on Tuesday will give members a full update on what transpired at Sunday’s JNF meeting and map out a collective way forward on the notching impasse. The meeting was called jointly by SNAT Secretary General Lot Vilakati, NAPSAWU Acting General Secretary Msimeto Malindzisa, SNAGAP Secretary General Phumzile Masilela and SWADNU Secretary General May’bongwe Masangane.
