FREE MPS, MBEDZI PETITION DELIVERY TO MATSAPHA CORRECTIONAL FOILED

MANZINI – A group of about 20 people failed to deliver a petition to HMCS in Matsapha where they demanded the release of the two incarcerated MPs and Amos Mbedzi.

According to His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) Public Relations Officer (PRO) Senior Superintendent Gugulethu Dlamini, the officers at the Matsapha Maximum Prison where the two Members of Parliament (MPs) are locked up, ordered the people to disperse and as such they did not deliver the petition.

Political

In the petition, the people demanded that HMCS Commissioner General Phindile Dlamini should release the two parliamentarians; Hosea MP Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Ngwempisi MP Mthandeni Dube, together with political prisoner, Amos Mbedzi.
They also asked why the MPs were moved from Sidwashini Correctional Facility to the Matsapha Maximum Prison. They asked the commissioner general where the department got the power to transfer the legislators. In the petition, they gave the commissioner general 10 days to respond or adhere to their demands. They said within the 10 days, she should issue a press statement announcing when she would release the trio and explain why the incarcerated MPs were transferred from Sidwashini Correctional Facility to the Matsapha Maximum Prison.

A source close to the matter said when the people arrived at the facility’s gate, they sang political songs and were carrying placards with different messages, which included the demand for the release of the trio. He said when the officers, who were deployed at the Correctional facility’s gate and saw the people, they approached them and ordered them to disperse. He claimed that after engaging them, the group left.

Ground

“They left the petition on the ground before leaving, but the officers did not take it,” the source claimed. Meanwhile, the department’s mouthpiece said there was a group of people who came to the Matsapha Maximum Prison yesterday. However, she said they did not know why they visited the facility. She said when they arrived, the officers told them that the facility was an area of security and noise was not allowed. “They ordered them to leave and they eventually left,” the PRO said. Worth noting is that in the petition, the people referred to themselves as emaSwati and they did not align themselves with any political organisation. The MPs have been charged for allegedly contravening the Suppression of Terrorism Act, while MP Mabuza has an extra charge of allegedly breaching the COVID-19 rules and regulations. Mbedzi is the South African national who was convicted of five charges, including sedition and murder. He was sentenced to 85 years and six months in prison by the High Court of Eswatini.

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