Africa-Press – Eswatini. No one will shoot his/her way to power in Eswatini.
This was the reaction by Government Spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo to the senseless killing of members of Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS). He said it was sad to always wake up and be confronted with news of yet another security officer who had lost a life through the random killings of uniformed men and women.
Nxumalo said the guns and the deadly bullet powder being sprayed upon security services men and women had nothing to do with politics, democracy or dialogue but criminal to the core and remain the first weapon of choice by terrorists hell-bent to usurp power through unconstitutional and unconventional means – a political crime which is frowned upon by all the known civilised world.
Nxumalo said the Multi Stakeholder Forum (MSF) as it were, seemed to know more than what the nation did on what triggered the killing of the country’s security service personnel.
“They seem to be using these deadly violence against our security officers as a ‘bait’ to position themselves as an official political opposition in the country. Their existence is and has not yet been sanctioned by the laws of the land. If that can happen; it can only be after the national dialogue when the nation in their respective Tinkhundla centres have submitted and endorsed that,” said Nxumalo.
Nxumalo ordered that the killing of security officers must stop.
“Violence and any other form of intimidation must cease. Then the future of Emaswati will be secured,” he emphasised.
The government spokesperson added that the bargaining of power through sacrificing peace and stability of the country on the altar of political convenience would render everyone as losers going into the future.
“Government will continue to prepare for the national dialogue driven by the interests of Eswatini as a whole, not by the special interests of certain groups who are under pressure to perform for their donors and handlers,” Nxumalo added.
Gunned
In the latest incident of violence against members of security forces, a police officer was gunned by unknown suspects travelling in a white Opel Corsa at Emathangeni just outside Manzini on yesterday morning.
This was not far from where an army vehicle was also shot by an unknown suspect the previous night.
The shooter allegedly came from behind the police officer who was walking by himself towards the Sigodvweni Police Station.
An eyewitness narrated how a white Corsa with two occupants coming from the direction of Sigodvweni first went passed the officer before pulling over behind him. One of the occupants of the car stepped out of the car with a firearm in his hand and walked towards the officer approaching him from the back, from a close range the shooter is said to have aimed for the back of the officer’s head and fired one shot, the police staggered a few steps forward before collapsing.
The shooter then ran across the street onto a dirt road by a huge water tank, he did not go back to the vehicle which was still parked on the same spot. After a while the car then drove off without the shooter. Some police officers at the scene shed tears over the murder incident. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer (PICO) Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed the incident.
She said the Matsapha Police were investigating the murder case of a police officer who was shot at Mathangeni, Matsapha around 06:30am on Saturday.
“The 46 year old officer who was stationed at the police academy,” she said. “A request is made to the public for any information that will assist with an investigation,” she pleaded.
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