TASK TEAMS TO DEAL WITH POLICE GUN VIOLENCE

MANZINI – The police have set up two task teams to deal with gun violence in the service.

According to a press release by the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) National Commissioner, William Dlamini, one of the task teams was set up to deal with a recurrence of such incidents wherein police were found to have killed people. He said as the police leadership, they were committed to doing everything possible to prevent the occurrence of similar incidents in future. Dlamini said ensuring that this desire was a reality, a multi-dimensional management and control mechanism comprising  two special task teams had been set up to review Standing Operation Orders. The national commissioner said: “Some of our Standing Operation Orders are no longer in line with the times that we live in and need to be reviewed in order to ensure safety to the nation and our officers.”

A recent incident quoted by Dlamini was that of the shooting which took place within the precincts of the Simunye Magistrates Court, wherein a police officer, Assistant Inspector Bernard Dlamini, gunned down two people using a service firearm. This happened last Wednesday, March 10, 2021. The national commissioner said police were alerted to a shocking and extreme incident of violence wherein Bernard gunned down Sindi Mavuso and her uncle Elliot Luhlanga. The pair, he said, was fatally shot after a court case that was said to be related to issues of maintenance. Dlamini said later on, Bernard also committed suicide.

“To say we were alarmed and saddened by the incident would be an understatement, more so, as it was not the first-of-its-kind where a police officer ends the life of another person and or people in gruesome fashion,” the national commissioner said. In setting up the task teams, the national commissioner said they would not only look into the Standing Operation Orders but the second one would deal with mental health within the police service.  He said: “The other team will revise the current programmes relating to police health and welfare matters, especially psychotherapy and emotional wellness of officers.”

Dlamini said the recurring incidents where police officers were at the centre of perpetrating violence were deeply concerning to the REPS and they condemned such acts in the strongest terms possible. He said police officers should be first to be aware that despite social problems and challenges that may confront them at any point in time, taking another person’s life was a gross violation of the law and unthinkable for anyone professing to be a police officer.   

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