Times Of Swaziland: BOMB SCARE AT MAGISTRATES COURT

BOMB SCARE AT MAGISTRATES COURT
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Sibusiso Shange on 09/08/2023 14:51:00


MBABANE – The Mbabane Magistrates Court staff members were hastily evacuated
from the court building, after police had received information that three bombs
had been planted within the premises.
The incident, which left the employees traumatised, happened around 9am
yesterday. The magistrates court staff include magistrates, prosecutors, court
clerks, court orderlies, warders, typists and cleaners. Eswatini is one of the
African countries where planting of bombs is very uncommon. Information gathered
was to the effect that the police officers rushed to evacuate the employees
immediately, after receiving the information, which was firstly directed to the
Eswatini National Fire, Rescue  and Emergency Services by an anonymous caller.
Suspects and inmates who were in court to answer on allegations leveled against
them were also removed from the court premises for their safety.
“Police officers came and instructed us to vacate our offices as they had
received information that three bombs had been planted within the premises,”
said one of the employees. Another employee said she thought it was a joke when
the police officers said; “Phumani nonkhe (get out),” while inside the
courtroom. During a visit to the Mbabane Magistrates Court, the employees were
found gathered on the other side of the road passing by the court. Police
officers from the Forensic Unit and Bomb Disposal Unit were found at the scene.
The police officers of the law were working hand-in-hand with Bastion Security
Services in the controlled area, which was marked with a yellow tape.
While at the scene, the police officers and the Bastion Security Services
officers conducted a clean sweep using sniffer dogs. The sniffer dogs searched
every corner of the court. However, the alleged bombs were not detected. The
news resulted in the delay of operations at the court. Fresh matters were dealt
with before noon while some matters, which were due for trial, were postponed to
other dates. Some employees were not comfortable with going back to their
offices even after the clean sweep. This swayed the minds of some of the
employees into thinking that the unknown caller fabricated the story just to
disturb the court proceedings. Police officers, mostly from the Operational
Support Services Unit (OSSU), spent about an hour searching each and every
office of the building. It was gathered that no bomb was detected during the
search.