Times Of Swaziland: CONCERNS OVER GANGS IN COMMUNITIES, SCHOOLS

CONCERNS OVER GANGS IN COMMUNITIES, SCHOOLS
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Sibusiso Zwane on 13/06/2024 17:46:00


DVOKOLWAKO - There are concerns and fears that violence in Eswatini might go
from bad to worse as gangs are taking over in communities, including schools.
This was raised during a sensitisation programme about gangs, which was hosted
by the Ministry of Education and Training. The exercise was held at Dvokolwako
High School for the guardians and pupils. Leading the programme was the Hhohho
Regional Administration Officer (REO). By definition, gangsterism is the culture
of belonging to organised gangs of criminals, especially involving violence. 
Knowledge Ngwenya, the Inspector of Schools in the Hhohho Region under the
Guidance and Counselling Department, labelled gangsterism as a pandemic which
had the potential of seeing the country experiencing another wave of unrest.
According to Ngwenya, as they were inspecting schools, they discovered that
there were acts of gangsterism and they roped in other government departments
that deal with children, like the Deputy Prime Minister’s (DPM) Office,
Ministry of Health, Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) and His Majesty’s
Correctional Services (HMCS) together with non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
like Swatini Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) and Kwakha Indvodza, among
others.
Sensitise
Ngwenya said they had formed a committee of 30 people from these departments and
organisations, which would visit 20 schools (10 primary schools and 10 high
schools) in the Hhohho Region, for a start to sensitise staff members, parents
and pupils about the causes and dangers of gangsterism together with how it
could be presented.  He said Dvokolwako High School was the first school to be
visited by the committee and this was after it received an invite from the
administration, which heard them talking about the concern (of gangsterism) on
national radio - the Eswatini Broadcasting Information and Services (EBIS).
Ngwenya highlighted that their research suggested that gangsterism started in
correctional facilities and had been spreading into societies and now it was in
schools. He said their concern as a ministry was the safety of pupils, teachers
and parents as gang members did not only deal with drugs, but they also used
them. He highlighted that during the 2021 civil unrest, schools became a hot
spot for protest actions, which culminated in vandalism of government property
and chaos, which meant that they played a role in the violent actions which the
country experienced. As the committee was sensitising the parents of Dvokolwako
High School, Inspector Fanyana Dlamini, a police officer from the Hhohho Region,
said the gang groups’ main aim was to commit violent criminal offences. In
fact, he said the gangs compete with each other in terms of committing the
violent criminal offences.
Dangerous
“Even within the same gang group, the members compete because if one commits
more dangerous violent acts, they get the recognition in the hierarchy of the
power,” the officer said.
For example, he said usually, a gang member would not commit an offence of rape
alone; instead, he said they would be two or more (gang rape) so that they could
have evidence of someone to confirm to their bosses that indeed they have raped
someone.  He said known gang groups include the 26, 27, 28, amabhenjamin, bafana
bakamdodi and K9, among others. He said they were identified by the tattoos on
their bodies, which include a sign of US Dollar sign ($), weapons (mainly knives
– binate), sun, stars and tombs.
Thereafter, the committee said acts of gangsterism have been discovered in
schools, they decided to sensitise the parents about it, mainly its signs and
language. He added that the aim was also to capacitate them on what they needed
to do to prevent their children from joining the gang groups. A former inmate,
who was brought by the committee, said it was hard to control gangsterism. He
said HMCS could not control it alone, because when the inmates they keep in
their custody were released, they returned to communities where they engaged in
a recruiting spree. “I can safely say gangsterism is a pandemic in societies
because my people have died because of it. It had killed ordinary community
members, business people, gang members and law enforcers,” he said.
He said these days in the communities, young boys and men carry knives, among
other weapons when they go to ‘hustle’. He said hustling to them was
committing violent criminal offences. Therefore, he said gangsterism needed the
relevant stakeholders to work jointly in order to successfully fight it.