COP HELD FOR SHOOTING MAN IN MOUTH

MANZINI - A police officer has been arrested in connection with the shooting of a man in the mouth at close range, after a deal that went sour.

The incident happened at the man’s home on Tuesday morning, at KaHlobile, near Mathangeni, under Kwaluseni Inkhundla, in Matsapha. According to a source close to the matter, the fight ensued after a double-crossing incident. The identity of the police officer will not be revealed for now, pending his court appearance. He said a female from Fairview, in Manzini, had a deal with Somandla Ncongwane (48) of KaHlobile, that he would assist them to load their consignment into a truck that would take it to South Africa, where they would receive it and distribute it to their client. He said Ncongwane was supposed to load the consignment on Friday and one of the contacts in the trucking business allegedly connected him to a truck driver, who was going to leave Eswatini for South Africa on Friday.

Source

As per the plan, according to the source, Ncongwane sent three of his men to meet the truck driver and load the consignment. However, he said while they were on their way to meet the truck driver around Sundowners, he (truck driver) called and asked them to pick another consignment at Eteni, which they did. He said later on, the truck driver changed the meeting point from around Sundowners and said they should meet him along the Sundowners/Malkerns Public Road. Indeed, the source said they met and the men gave the driver all the consignments.
The source said since they were seeing him for the first time, they told him to follow them to Mahhala, as they wanted to withdraw money to pay him.

He said their intention was to see him properly, so that they could be able to recognise him, just in case they got double-crossed. However, he said when they called him about 10 minutes later, as they were approaching Mahhala, he did not pick up the call. They said the time was around 8pm and they were calling to tell him where he would find them. At first, he said they thought that maybe he was still busy packing the consignments, but since he was not picking or returning their calls, later on at around 9pm, they then assumed that maybe he was arrested. 

Thereafter, he said they went to check where they gave him the consignment, but did not find the truck. After that, he said an assumption was that he might have been arrested, they went to look for him at Malkerns Police Station, but again, they did not find the truck. “On the following morning, his cellphone was not available on the MTN Eswatini network,” the source said. Later on in the day, the source said Ncongwane received a call from his contact, who connected him to the truck driver and asked him if the latter had called to inform him about what happened after his men had dropped the consignment. He said after learning that he did not know what happened, the contact advised him to call the truck driver as he had just spoken to him, which meant that his cellphone had been recharged.

Hijacked

According to the source, when Ncongwane called the truck driver, the latter claimed that he was hijacked and robbed of the consignment a few moments after his men had left. In fact, he said they had not even driven for about 200 metres, when a Toyota Hilux DG6 LDV, full of men who were armed with guns, stopped the truck. The source said the truck driver alleged that after seeing that he was under attack, he sped off towards Dalcrue Agricultural Holding Limited. He said after finding the gates closed, he stopped the truck, jumped out of it and bolted into sugar cane fields. In the process, he said the truck driver alleged that he lost his cellphone, thus he could not pick their calls on the previous night.

After that, the source said the truck driver claimed that the person who got his phone was generous as he gave it to him when he called on Saturday morning. “Ncongwane and his men, who did not buy the truck driver’s narration, investigated the matter and they confirmed he even reported the hijacking and robbery to the police,” the source said.BThe source also alleged that after talking to the truck driver on Saturday, Ncongwane informed his client from Fairview, but they also did not buy the story.  He also said when they were investigating the claims of the truck driver, Ncongwane updated his client.

“However, the client, who believed that Ncongwane was trying to double cross them, threatened him,” he alleged. Thereafter, he said on Tuesday, at around 7am, the suspected female dealer from Fairview and the police officer in question, came in two vehicles; a Toyota Vitz sedan and a Toyota Hilux GD6, respectively; arrived at Ncongwane’s home and demanded to have an audience with him. He said the police officer in question had a heated confrontation with Ncongwane and it led to a fistfight. “However, upon seeing that Ncongwane was overpowering him, he drew a pistol and shot him once in the mouth at close range,” the source alleged.

He said Ncongwane’s teeth, tongue and throat were hit by the bullet and it lodged in one of the bones connected to the spinal code. He said police were called and Ncongwane was rushed to the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital, but he was transferred to Mbabane Government Hospital, where he is still receiving medical attention. According to the source, it is not clear if the gun and car (Toyota Hilux GD6), which the police officer used during the incident, belong to him or the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS). On the other hand, Ncongwane, who spoke from his hospital bed, said all that he wants to know is why the police officer shot him because he did not have the consignment.

However, he could not comment about the incident because he could not speak properly due to the injuries he sustained in the mouth. Meanwhile, Acting Deputy Police Information and Communications Officer, Inspector Mazwi Ndzimandze, confirmed that an attempted murder case had been reported at Matsapha Police Station and it pertains to a 48-year-old man, who was shot in the mouth by a man and a woman.

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