Omari a Prince Bandzile imposter

According to sources, Omari was even able to meet with that country’s King Letsie III, who also thought that he was meeting with King Mswati III’s son, Prince Bandzile.

The sources within the Swazi leadership said according to the information they have been able to gather, Omari arrived in Lesotho early last week and booked into the Maseru Sun claiming to be Prince Bandzile.

He is reported to have met with people who were able to arrange an audience for him with the Basotho monarch.

It is reported that he discussed certain projects with King Letsie which he said he wanted to undertake in that country.

The sources said King Letsie sensed that something was amiss and he communicated with some senior Swazi officials who were asked to describe Prince Bandzile to the King.

"The King said the ‘Prince Bandzile’ he had met with was slightly taller than the one who was described to him," one of the sources said.

The sources said, meanwhile the Swazi officials were making efforts to find out if Prince Bandzile may, indeed, be in Lesotho.

"Tibiyo TakaNgwane was contacted and they said the real Prince Bandzile was in Dubai where he is currently furthering his education and they confirmed that he had not left that country recently and he was definitely not in Lesotho," the sources said.

The sources said it was then that the Swazi officials knew that there was an impostor in Lesotho.

The sources said when Omari was eventually taken in by Lesotho police after failing to settle a E65 000 bill at the Maseru Sun, that country’s authorities once again got in touch with Swazi authorities because there was still a concern that Omari was a Swazi prince and they wanted to avoid a diplomatic incident.

The sources said after communication back and forth a page of Omari’s South African passport was faxed through to Swaziland and it was only then that the Swazi authorities realised who the impostor was. When called yesterday evening, the Chief Officer at the King’s Office, Bheki Dlamini confirmed that they were looking into the issue of Omari misrepresenting himself and claiming to be Prince Bandzile in Lesotho.

"We are taking this matter seriously and we will get to the bottom of it," he said.

Efforts to get comment from Omari yesterday were unsuccessful as his mobile phone went straight to voice mail when called.

King’s office to take up matter with SA govt

According to the Chief Officer (CO) at the King’s Office, Bheki Dlamini, they have had enough of Omari and his antics which are embarrassing the royal family.

In an interview yesterday evening, Dlamini said they were taking the latest incident from Lesotho seriously because it is a criminal offence to impersonate someone.

The CO said his office had since been tasked to address the problem with urgency before something worse happens.

Dlamini said he would soon hold discussions with the ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to find ways of addressing what he called blatant abuse of the royal family name by Omari.

He said the Swazi Foreign Affairs ministry would engage their South African counterparts to find ways of addressing this problem.

"He is not a Swazi but a South African and the only way of dealing with him is through his government. We are told he called himself Prince Bandzile and we are worried. I want to state for the record that Prince Bandzile was never in Lesotho but he is in Dubai where he attends school," he said.

Omari burst onto the scene early this year when he appeared in South African publications commenting about Swazi affairs and claiming to be a member of the Swazi royal family.

The Government Press Secre-tary, Percy Simelane and Ludzi-dzini acting Governor Timothy Mtetwa both disowned him saying he had no relation to the royal family.

Omari later came into the country and persisted to claim relation to the royal family but when pressed he refused to reveal the identity of his father.

What is known about him is that he was born Mthokozisi Fanas Sangweni.

He, however, claims that Sangweni was the last name of his step father.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: