Timothy, Siphiwe in verbal showdown

LOBAMBA – A nasty altercation ensued between Lubulini MP Timothy Myeni and SWAPOL Director Siphiwe Hlophe immediately after his meeting with HIV/AIDS support groups in Parliament yesterday.

Myeni confronted Hlophe just as they were walking along the corridor from the building on the eastern side of the Parliament building to the lounge.

He accused Hlophe of ‘thinking she was smart’ and said what she was doing would catch up with her.
This was in full view of some members of the support groups and police officers as everyone was moving out of the building where the meeting was held.

Most stood on the side, watched and listened in disbelief as the two exchanged heated words.
Hlophe did not take kindly to Myeni’s utterances and advised him to stop threatening her. Myeni continued and ended by saying ‘wena make wena’ (you woman you).

Hlophe retaliated by telling the MP that he also had many problems that he still had to sort out or they would haunt him. When Hlophe tried to launch a further attack, a police officer intervened and pulled Myeni aside, while Hlophe continued with her way to the restaurant at the lounge, where she bought a soft drink and moved out of the Parliament premises.

Myeni was then seen talking to Swaziland AIDS Support Organisation (SASO) officer Madzabudzabu Kunene but their conversation could not be ascertained.
Hlophe said she was appalled by what the MP did and said she was still going to think about it.

Meanwhile, MP Myeni, after being lambasted and labelled names for statements he made at a workshop for MPs, said he had now thrown everything to God.
MP Myeni said this was because he had apologised to the nation and the international community, but still he was being hammered.
“I’ve thrown everything to God because I did not know the issue would go this far,” he said. Myeni explained that at the workshop, he did not make statements but posed questions to the National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDS (NERCHA).
shocked
He said this was after he was shocked by the statistics shown at the workshop, that the rate of HIV infection was increasing rapidly in the country, as it currently stood at about 42 per cent.
“It was all in the form of a question because the graphs showed that the rate of infection was increasing. I asked if NERCHA did have plans for compulsory testing for all of us in Swaziland as a control measure.

I then asked if it would be possible to put a mark to those found to be HIV positive,” he said.
He said his concern was that some people continued to engage in sex knowing very well that they had the virus, while some even got into marriage not knowing their status and got infected by their partners.

Myeni said as a marriage counsellor he did get such information from people wishing to get married.
He insisted that his was a question and he was surprised when he was lambasted in the media after the publication of the story. Myeni said he even went to the reporter who wrote the story, to request him not to write what he said, but was shocked when he saw it on the front page the next day.

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