Times Of Swaziland: ARMY CHIEF INSTITUTES INQUIRY INTO UNESWA INCIDENT

ARMY CHIEF INSTITUTES INQUIRY INTO UNESWA INCIDENT
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Sibusiso Zwane on 19/05/2022 09:06:00


MANZINI – Army Commander General (four-star) Moses Hulumende Mashikilisana
Fakudze, has instituted a commission of inquiry regarding the incident which
took place at UNESWA on Tuesday.
This is according to a statement which was issued by Umbutfo Eswatini Defence
Force (UEDF) Public Affairs Officer 2nd Lieutenant Tengetile Khumalo yesterday
afternoon. In the statement, Khumalo said subsequent to the incident that took
place on May 17, 2022 at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA), Kwaluseni Campus,
where the UEDF was involved, as a military, they would like to state their
position on the matter. “The UEDF commander has since instituted a commission
of inquiry to ascertain as to what exactly transpired, and find underlying facts
on the aforementioned incident,” the public affairs officer said.
Thereafter, she stated that the UEDF was a professional establishment, hence it
strongly condemned all unprofessionalism in every possible way. With that being
said, she said action would be taken accordingly should anyone be found to have
been on the wrong side of the law. Moreover, the army’s spokesperson said the
issue was now with the pertinent law enforcement agency and on the same breadth,
on the UEDF’s rightful structures. Therefore, she said the UEDF assured all
emaSwati and citizens that the organisation was in place to serve and protect in
every possible professional manner.
Protest
It is worth noting that earlier, this publication had sent a questionnaire
regarding the matter to the army’s public affairs office. In the
questionnaire, Khumalo was asked what triggered the military men to attended the
the protest action by UNESWA students at Kwaluseni Campus, and if protocol was
followed when the soldiers attended to the matter. The army spokesperson was
also asked how bad the situation was, which could warrant soldiers to attend to
the protest and if there was any criminal offence that the Swaziland National
Union of Students (SNUS) President Colani Maseko was found to have committed,
which made the soldiers torture him in the manner they did.
Again, another question was what offence did the soldiers recommend to the
police to charge Maseko with when they took him to the Matsapha Police Station.
She was also asked if soldiers were warranted by the law to force people to roll
on the ground and assault them. Once more, it is worth mentioning that during
the commemoration of the UEDF Day last month, the Army Commander General
(four-star), Fakudze, said the secondary mandate of the military was contained
in the King’s Order in Council of 1977, where as an army, they assisted on
request. He said the piece of legislation said they should assist the police in
the restoration and maintenance of law and order. Fakudze said the above orders
were also stipulated in the Police Act, and it said the national commissioner
(NATCOM), which in this case was William Tsitsibala Dlamini, when he found that
there was an unbearable situation, he had to write to the incumbent army
commander to assist and the latter had to comply.