MBONGWA IMPLICATED IN ASSAULT, KIDNAPPING, 7 ARRESTED

MBABANE – Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) President Mbongwa Dlamini was last Monday assaulted during a routine traffic stop at Hhelehhele, Manzini.

Dlamini was reportedly assaulted by two people, who were later kidnapped and assaulted with the intent to cause serious bodily harm. The SNAT president said he was assaulted while driving towards his Ngculwini homestead near Hhelehhele, where he found two traffic police officers engaging in their duties. He claimed that the two police officers were known to him and they had conversations in jest which included ‘the need for him to be tested for drink-driving through the use of a breathalyser’.

Claimed

Dlamini purported that while they engaged with the female traffic police officer, she took his phone and he pretended to also want take her gun. This, Dlamini claimed, was in jest and there was no malice from either party. However, Dlamini supposed that what baffled him was that while they were engaging with the police officers; two people alighted from a vehicle and started assaulting him. The unionist said as the pair assaulted him; the police who were manning the barricade beneath the overhead bridge of the highway deserted the area and left him on the ground.  As such, Dlamini supposed that the assault was so severe such that he was accorded four days bed rest by a medical practitioner to recuperate.

Subsequent to his assault, Dlamini said he communicated with some members of his organisation to assist him to meet the Mafutseni station commander, to enquire on why the police left the scene, while he was being assaulted. Dlamini said as they drove to Mafutseni Police Station, which is about 19 kilometres from Hhelehhele, where he was purportedly assaulted, they came across the same police officers who had left him while being assaulted. “We enquired from them on why I was being assaulted and why they did not defend me, but there was no plausible response,” he said. Dlamini said he, along with some SNAT national executive committee (NEC) members, proceeded to the Mafutseni Police Station and found out that the station commander was not available on the day.

He claimed to have set an appointment to meet him the subsequent day. However, later at night, Dlamini said he sensed that the situation would get out of hand as some of his family members were not happy about his assault. “I requested an NEC member to assist me and contact the station commander again and alert him that this incident had the potential of getting out of hand,” he said. Dlamini said as his assault coincided with a conference which he was attending; it resulted in him meeting the station commander later in the day.

Meeting

He said the meeting between him and the station commander had members of the NEC present as well. The meeting, he said, was at the Mafutseni Police Station; however, it did not pan out well.  “During the course of the meeting, there was a number which was constantly dialling me and I ignored it. When everything was done, I contacted it and discovered that it was a neighbour, informing me that my son, along with other relatives, were being looked for by heavily armed police officers,” he said.

The unionist said this resulted in him seeking recourse through setting a meeting with the Manzini regional commander. Dlamini said as he was busy attending the conference, the meeting was to be held on Wednesday.  The SNAT president said this concerned him and he established communication with his son and the relatives. “I advised them to meet me in town, along with my lawyer, so that I can hand them over to the police which is something I did the subsequent day,” Dlamini claimed. He said his son, relatives and their friends were subsequently arrested and charged with kidnapping and assault with intent to cause serious bodily harm.

The seven were reportedly arrested for assaulting and forcing a male at Ngculwini into a car. Sources claimed that they bundled one of the two people supposedly involved in the assault of Dlamini into a sedan. It was purported that when they abducted him, the seven were carrying a variety of weapons, which included knives. They claimed that the seven first ransacked the house where he resided. It was claimed that before being bundled into the sedan, he had been hit hard on his femur with a hard object which limited his efforts to flee.

Abducted

It was claimed that the man who was abducted, was driven to a forest, where he overpowered two of his assailants and fled the scene and reported the matter to the police. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer, Senior Superintendent Phindile Vilakati, confirmed the arrests. Vilakati said seven people were arrested and the case is now in court.
“The people when assaulting the complainant said he had assaulted their president,” Vilakati said.

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