NOTORIOUS EX-CON, JOINS COPS IN CRIME FIGHT

MBABANE – As rare as it sounds but it is true.

Siphocosini Inkhundla has broken with tradition in a response to the rampant spread of crime and they have partnered with both ex-convicts and the crime prevention unit in the Mbabane police to obliterate the ugly face of crime and stay ahead of the criminals. Dosinja ‘Dosa’ Tfwala, one of the country’s most notorious car-jackers and cash-in-transit heisters, has now become a crime prevention ambassador and leads a few converts who are working with the inkhundla and the police to uproot crime and fight gangsterism.

One of the heists that Tfwala pulled, together with his accomplices, is that of the E600 000 that disappeared at Limkokwing University of Technology back in 2018. Faced with the rapid spread of different forms of criminal activities – from brutal gender-based violence to violent heists and burglaries, Siphocosini has had to adopt the out-of-the box approach to arrest the situation.

There are four constituent chiefdoms under the Siphocosini Inkhundla and all of them have, until recently, been under siege from criminal elements, making it difficult to focus on a proper development agenda for the inkhundla. “If the safety of people and property cannot be guaranteed, it is difficult to focus on development,” said Indvuna Yenkhundla Wilton ‘Jazi’ Mamba.

Siphocosini and Mantabeni chiefdoms are battling against gangsterism perpetrated by the cultic 26s and 28s, a violent group of jailbirds, mainly teenagers whose main weapons are knives. The gangs break into homes and local grocery stores, where they steal valuables to sell so that they can feed an insatiable drug habit.

Emaphara

Sigangeni has been held hostage for many years by a gangster group called ‘emaphara’ as revealed by Mamba.  Homes would be broken into in brought daylight, and a shop keeper in an isolated store had her hand severed with a machete when she refused to cooperate with the gang.

There were numerous similar cases, until the people of Sigangeni were forced to respond violently through a form of vigilantism that left the leader of the gang dead. Some members of the community who were fingered to have led the attack on the gang were arrested and face murder charges in court.

Mamba said when they took office as a new Inkhundla Council, crime prevention was on the list of priority interventions after food security and job creation. The situation in the fourth chiefdom, Luhlendlweni, has been calm in recent years following the deployment of the Operational Service Support Unit (OSSU) who have a base in the border community.

The community had been used to smuggle drugs, mainly dagga, to neighbouring South Africa, which bred other forms of crime. The OSSU has been so tough to drug-traffickers and other law breakers over the years, the situation has significantly calmed down.

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