‘MALUME’ ACCUSED OF SEXUALLY ABUSING PUPIL

MBABANE – A malume allegedly abused a pupil from one of the schools in the city, while transporting her home from school.
Malume is an informal term for drivers of vehicles that transport pupils to and from school. Information gathered was to the effect that the driver, who was entrusted with the safety of the pupils, had taken the other children to their respective destinations and the child in question was the only one remaining in the vehicle. Sources told this publication that the driver, *Amos, told the unsuspecting pupil that he would drop her off later than usual.

Incident

However, Amos reportedly drove to a certain place with the pupil and he allegedly sexually abused her. The incident happened last week. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Senior Superintendent Phindile Vilakati said police are investigating the matter. However, she said no arrest has been made so far. This incident happened two months after the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) reported that 101 rape cases were reported in July this year. The report showed that half of the survivors were children below the age of 18. It was also mentioned that most of the survivors were abused by adults, who silenced them with money and material things.

In 2020, a driver (malume), Bonginhlanhla Lucky Kunene (36) of Ngodini, was arrested and charged for allegedly sexually violating a nine-year-old minor. The parents of the girl reportedly learnt about the abuse of the minor after she was seen purchasing expensive toys with money they had not given her. It was alleged that upon being questioned by the parents on where she had obtained the money from, the minor disclosed that she had been given E200 by malume. She claimed that the accused had also sexually abused her. In his bail papers, Kunene denied having committed the offence.

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