ASPIRING SOLDIERS TO BE VETTED – UEDF

MBABANE – The UEDF says there will be a vetting process during the recruitment of soldiers.

This was said by the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF) Public Affairs Officer, 2nd Lieutenant Tengetile Khumalo. There was a social media post where some people said they intended to join the army in order to push their own political agendas from the inside. When questioned if people affiliated with any political party were welcome to try their luck, Khumalo stated that the UEDF was guided by its recruitment policies. “The Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force is a professional establishment, hence guided by recruitment policies in place, including vetting among others. It is imperative to note that vetting during recruitment in the UEDF has been a legal operation for decades. We are guided by the establishment’s recruitment policies,” she said.

When questioned about the vetting process, Khumalo stated that UEDF would not be revealing it. Meanwhile, Swaziland Liberation Movement (SWALIMO) President Mduduzi ‘Gawuzela’ Simelane, stated that he did not want to have the same strategy used in the recruitment of Members of Parliament (MPs), implemented in the recruitment of  soldiers as he had fears that their members would be tortured during training.  Worth noting is that Simelane had suggested that members of his party needed to be elected as MPs in order to fight the Tinkhundla System from within.

Fears

“Even though I would not want to stop people from doing what they feel is right, I have fears. I feel that they would instead be tortured by the soldiers during the training process. We have seen this happen and in some instances some have even died,” he alleged. Simelane mentioned that he did not believe that the recruitment was legit as this was a strategy government was allegedly using to deflect attention from the ongoing political issues. He alleged that government would use this to pit emaSwati against each other. “Remember that the country is still under an employment freeze, hence we have graduated nurses, teachers and doctors who are loitering around jobless. Classes are crowded with few teachers and clinics and hospitals without nurses and doctors. They will tell you that this is because government froze employment. One questions how come they are calling people for vacancies in these forces as soldiers. Where is the war or are we preparing to go to Ukraine or Russia?” the Swalimo president asked. The recruitment process of the UEDF attracted a number of comments on social media, with people expressing their disappointment at government on the decision to hire more soldiers. According to the social media users, this was a strategy used to shift attention from the real issues faced by Eswatini.

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