LIQUOR TRADERS’ MARCH TO PM STOPPED

MBABANE – At the eleventh hour, members of the Swaziland National Liquor Association (SNLA) were yesterday refused permission to march to the prime minister top deliver a petition.

The members had planned to deliver petitions to the Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, the South Africa High Commission and the European Union Commission. 

The march had been scheduled to commence at around 10am.

However, at around 8am, SNLA Secretary General Thami Hlatshwako was summoned to the Municipal Council of Mbabane to engage with police and the Council.

It was during this meeting that Hlatshwako was informed that the organisation would not be allowed to march through the city centre.

Shock

In an interview after the meeting, Hlatshwako alleged that he was informed that the organisation did not apply on time.

“This is not true because we submitted the application on Monday,” he alleged.

Substantiating his claim, Hlatshwako showed this reporter a document indicating that the application was received by the Council on Monday around 5:35pm.

He expressed shock that the Council was using this as an excusing for not permitting them to proceed with the March.

He wondered why the Council had to wait until the last meet to inform them about its decision.

“During the meeting, Council’s representative said they received the application on Tuesday. He then explained that they were permitted by law to sanction the meeting. 

Mandated

“He then gave the floor to state our reasons to stage the march. We duly informed them that we had been mandated by our membership to seek permission to deliver petitions to government and the two embassies,” he narrated.

Hlatshwako added that they informed the stakeholders that procedures were followed in applying for permission.

Also, he said they served letters to the PM’s Office, the SA High Commission and the EU Commission notifying them that the association would be delivering petitions.

These letters, Hlatshwako said, were delivered on Wednesday.

Besides citing the late application, Hlatshwako said the Council described the march as a high risk.

“They said the issues we wanted to discuss were of public interest, hence it will attract a lot of attention. They said allowing us would cause a spike in COVID-19 cases,” he said.

Forced

Hlatshwako said he was told to inform his members not to attend the march and this forced him to make quick phone calls.

Council’s Information and Public Relations Officer Lucky Tsabedze explained that a number of key factors were looked at before the decision to deny the applicants was taken.

“One of the factors is that the point they wanted to use as an assembly point, the Coronation Park, is still closed. The facility was closed by the municipality in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This point was explained to the applicants by myself and the chief planner and we were supported by representatives of the Royal Eswatini Police Service,” he said.

Further, Tsabedze said COVID-19 was still a serious threat, and Council would do anything to prevent situations that could spread the virus.

Upon engaging the applicants, Tsabedze said Council got the sense that there were no guarantees and no clear control that had been put in place by the applicant as a mechanism with which to control the number of participants.

Risks

“Alive to the above facts and the risks associated with it, the municipality decided not to allow the march to go ahead. We just could not guarantee that government’s COVID-19 Regulations would be fully observed during the march,” he said.

Members of the SNLA then resolved to deliver the petitions to the South Africa High Commission and EU Commission at a later date.

Eventually, the association assigned two of its members to deliver the petition to the PM’s Office, which they did successfully.

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