CASSPIRS, WATER CANNONS BOUGHT TO BE USED- ISAAC

MBABANE –“Police vehicles will be used when need be.” This was said by National Commissioner of Police Isaac Magagula during a press conference held at the Police Headquarters yesterday.

Magagula was referring to reports about the presence of an OSSU ‘Casspir’  during the recent Vocational and Commercial Training Institute (VOCTIM) students’ protest action which took place on Monday. Magagula first set the record straight that the vehicle which was referred to as a Casspir is actually called Inyala.

He then said even though the police department has the said Casspirs, it still does not permit people to make it sound like a monster which should not be present during events such as the strike action.
The commissioner said Tinyala, Casspirs and water cannons were procured by the government with taxpayers’ money to be used in events of rioting crowds.

The Casspirs are said to be made in such a way that should anyone of the rowdy crowds attended to by the police do anything that threatens the police’s lives, no harm is done to them.

However, Magagula said this does not mean police are supposed to use the vehicles to injure people. He emphasised that police Casspirs or any other vehicles are not a problem but the problem might be on the person driving them.

Referencing to Ayanda Mkhabela, a University of Swaziland student who was injured by one of the Tinyalas during the institutions protest action last year, Magagula said people should not use her matter to score their political goals because it portrayed a picture that the police do not care about what had happened to her.

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