40 ARMY RECRUITS EXPELLED

MANZINI – The army has started cleaning up the mess that happened during the recruitment exercise concluded recently as about 40 recruits were shown the exit door from the USDF Infantry School in Mbuluzi yesterday.

A well-placed source said the process of expelling the recruits who had failed to prove that they used the legal route to be recruited into the military, forced the whole training process to stop at around 11am.

The source said this was after the arrival of a team of soldiers at the camp, who included top brass officers. He said soon after their arrival, all the recruits were called to the assembly square where about 40 of them were called out to gather separately.

In the meantime, there was an empty USDF bus which was parked nearby with its engine running as if it was ready to take them home anytime.  The source said they were then addressed by some of the military top brass officials before being ordered to join the others but were ordered not to leave.

Thereafter, they were all instructed to go to their tents while the senior officers held a meeting in one of the conference rooms at Mbuluzi Army Barracks. “At around 3pm, the about 40 recruits who had been earlier called separately, were handed over to officers from the Military Police Department, who accompanied them to their tents where they were given orders to strip the army uniform, wear civilian clothes and pack their belongings,” the source said. Nonetheless, Lieutenant Colonel Madoda Mkhatshwa, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the army, confirmed the latest developments.

He said this was an ongoing exercise since the training started. He said the exercise started as a response to complaints which were lodged by Constituency Headmen at the army headquarters.

Mkhatshwa said after a complaint was lodged by the rightful person to the lawful structure, which in this case was the army headquarters, they looked into it and if it was found that there were elements of wrongdoing, the situation would then be corrected.
“The recruits were warned against such prior to joining the army.”

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