SILENCING GUNS: MARWICK RESPONDS TO BENNETT’S SENTIMENTS

NHLANGANO – Lobamba Lomdzala Member of Parliament (MP) Marwick Khumalo has responded to Walter Bennett regarding sentiments he made after Khumalo’s comment on shot Hosea resident.

This is after the businessman and former senator called upon parliamentarians to consider all sides before saying police defied the call to silence guns. The incident Khumalo had addressed in Parliament happened at Hosea Inkhundla during a civic voter education exercise hosted by the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) on Tuesday where chaos erupted when the residents became violent and demanded to know the ‘whereabouts’ of their incarcerated MP Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza. This resulted in one of them being shot while reportedly attempting to grab a gun that had fallen from an officer of the law. Subsequent to the incident, the Lobamba Lomdzala MP submitted in Parliament that the shooting was contradictory to the call to silence guns by the King.

This then saw Bennett commenting on the issue as he said the concerns raised in Parliament that members of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) defied His Majesty King Mswati III’s call to silence the guns were genuine and needed to be balanced in order to make sense. He said all facts needed to be considered and an enquiry be made on the situation to ascertain the truth of what transpired on the day. In response to Bennett’s sentiments, Khumalo, through a press statement, said when he made the submission in Parliament regarding the shooting at Hosea; he was of sane mind and acted in his capacity as a representative of the people adding that he stood by it.

Disenfranchised

“I don’t need to be lectured about considering all options by an inherently biased individual when it comes to the disenfranchised section of our population,” he said. Khumalo added that His Majesty’s speech needed no ‘crooked’ interpretations since it was very clear and to the point. The speech, he said, needed no clarifications from grandstanding quarters. He further said that the notion of being more loyal than others, was supposed to be kept to oneself. “Why should I submit to the dictates of someone who has a political agenda using me as a stepping stone?” wondered Khumalo.

He said when ordinary citizens were shot and killed by security forces, whose statistics were confirmed by a statutory body like the Human Rights, Integrity and Public Administration Commission, some of them are on record condemning such heinous acts. Likewise, he said, when police officers were shot and killed by unknown forces calling themselves Solidarity Forces, they condemned the brutality without reservations in parliament and even conveyed their sincere condolences to the prime minister as well to the national commissioner who happened to be in the House at that time last year. “I, as a legislator, felt duty bound to act because violence is abominable. However, some of the biased characters never said a word of condemnation when the citizens were killed. However, they regained their voices when the police were on the receiving end. That’s not consistent with balanced action. If this is not bias, then I don’t know what it is. I would like to appreciate and acknowledge genuine advice from an objective character,” added Khumalo.

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