Africa-Press – Eswatini. REPOSA has come out to make a hue and cry about the recent transfers of its members by the national commissioner of police.
The Royal Eswatini Police Service Staff Association (REPOSA) has since written to the National Commissioner (NATCOM) of police, William Tsitsibala Dlamini, raising concerns over the timing of same. In the letter, they described the transfers as victimisation and a stratagem to scatter the few loyalists of the police association.
REPOSA Secretary General (SG) Dumsile Khumalo alleged that she had been forced to withdraw the letter by the office of the NATCOM, which was written on December 19, 2022. Khumalo is, however, adamant that she would not withdraw the letter but would instead seek legal recourse. She said the NATCOM’s office was expected to respond within seven days, something which had not happened. Khumalo disclosed that they would be engaging their lawyer, who was expected to file papers in court today. She said most of the affected members were those who did manual work.
The SG said they were being transferred to areas including Nhlangano among others. She asserted that the saddest part was that some of the officers’ children were this year going to external classes, including Grade VII, Form III and V. “I really do not understand what the NATCOM office takes us for.” This, she said, was because the pre-requisite of the transfers was clear on that they should happen when there was a vacant post and that the position would benefit the said officer. In other instances, she said transfers were made when there was an officer in another station who had requested to be moved and stated their reasons for that, and then they swapped the positions after engaging.
Victimisation
In the letter addressed to the NATCOM, Khumalo described the transfers as a form of victimisation against their members for their active involvement in the association. She further stated that the transfers were an attempt to scatter their members to far away places in order to make it difficult for them to be always available for meetings and related activities. According to Khumalo, the office of the NATCOM had also been intimidating their members from freely participating in activities, hence a majority of them were participating anonymously in fear of vindictive strategies by the office.
“It is against that backdrop that we view the recent transfers as a stratagem to scatter the few loyalists of our association in order to castrate it,” Khumalo said. She highlighted that they were writing the communiqué on the assumption that the office had the necessary powers to transfer police officers in the manner that it did, with all rights being reserved.However, Khumalo said it was their respectful view that the transfer of a police officer from one region to another inevitably affected his or her interests in one way or the other.
Among other things, she highlighted that their members had families whom they lived with, especially school-going children. “If your office issues a letter of transfer to the effect that the police officer is being transferred with immediate effect, this means that you never considered the fact that the officer concerned will have to relocate his children to other schools as well.”
Schools
Khumalo pointed out that, at this time of the year, it would not be possible to get the best schools for the officers’ children, if at all it was still possible to secure a place in the less popular schools. She said it was even worse for those officers whose children would be going to external classes. “Schools do not admit any pupil to those grades,” she said. Furthermore, Khumalo said they were of the respectful view that, to roughshod impose a transfer on those officers without affording them a right to make representations, as to how such transfers affected their interests, was unconstitutional in so far as it violated the rules of natural justice as enshrined in Section 33 of the Constitution.
“We accordingly request your good office to hold in abeyance all transfers unilaterally and willy-nilly imposed on our members pending mutual engagements between the association and your trusted office.” Khumalo said they were looking forward to receiving a response to the communiqué within seven days of receipt of same.
She stated that should they not receive any response on the issue, they would assume that the NATCOM’s office stood by its decision to unilaterally transfer their members, in which case they would be left with no option but to seek redress from the courts with an appropriate order for costs.
Khumalo said following that the REPOSA National Executive Committee (NEC) denied knowledge of the communiqué, she was summoned by the NATCOM office.
She mentioned that the NEC indeed did not know the letter as it was written after consultation with the crisis committee, which was formed as a result of the differences they had. Khumalo said the association was not the NEC but the members. Reached for comments, Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati said she was not aware of the matter and could only respond after consultation with her bosses today. Vilakati said there was no one to consult with as it was a Sunday.
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