VIOLENT PROTESTS DAMAGES AT OVER E1.8 MILLION SO FAR

MANZINI – The cost of the carnage caused by violent protests in the country is said to be over E1.8 million, so far.

However, this is an inconclusive amount as the value of the products is still being calculated in the various constituencies. According to the Chief Police Information and Communications Officer, Superintendent Phindile Vilakati, the total cost of the damage in the two shops looted at Siphofaneni is E291 000. One of the shops had items valued at E174 000 stolen when it was pelted with stones and broken into during the violent protest that left the rural town looking like a warzone. During the skirmish, one of the shops, which belonged to a Pakistani national, Ahmid Hassan, was vandalised and looted.

Emptied

The shop had almost all its contents emptied by people believed to be the protesters, while its owner was asleep inside. The vandals pelted the shop window panes with stones before gaining entry to take some of the items in stock. Outside Hassan’s shop were stones and rocks which were supposedly used to pelt the window panes and also break the door in order to gain entry. Vilakati said the other shop had goods valued at E117 000 stolen.
She also said the horse and trailer truck that was transporting an excavator was valued at E1.4 million. In this incident, the horse was smouldered into ashes with debris of the frame lying on the ground. What remained intact was its chassis which anchored a few charred debris and the remnants of its engine. As much as its trailer was not severely damaged as its tyres were still intact, the excavator it was transporting was scorched save for the boom, arm and bucket.

Vilakati further said a truck in Mbabane had items worth E75 000 plundered during a protest. She said police were still computing the carnage in the other constituencies. “The challenge we are facing is computing the value of some of the destroyed structures,” she said. Worth noting is that in some roads signage in the constituencies and guard rails were uprooted and set alight in the motorways such that it blocked traffic. Also, buildings were pelted with stones while the Eswatini Government Revenue offices and the Eswatini Government Home Affairs offices at Siphofaneni were set alight; but the fire was extinguished before their contents were destroyed.
Meanwhile, Vilakati extended a plea to the citizenry, and those behind the protests, to refrain from torching trucks as some transported combustible items which posed a danger to the public, inclusive of the protesters.
She also emphasised that it was a crime to destroy people’s property.

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