Police cars set on fire

KAPHUNGA – Mystery surrounds the burning of two police vans and a private sedan within the premises of the KaPhunga Police Station in the early hours of Thursday.

KaPhunga is one of the two main bases of the Operational Support Services Unit (OSSU) – the police riot squad that has been trained in many areas, including controlling violent protestors.

Police investigating the case suspect that a police officer based at KaPhunga was responsible for the burning of the vehicles.

This view has been challenged by other officers who suspect that the vehicles were petrol bombed as a political statement.

However, the police headquarters has ruled out the possibility of a bomb damaging the property.

They refused the news team permission to inspect the cars and take pictures.

They fingered their own officer to be behind what they described as an arson attack deliberately perpetrated by the officer to destroy evidence for a case in which he was implicated.

The sedan allegedly belongs to the very same police officer suspected of burning the vehicles.

It is said that the suspect allegedly stole a battery from a car belonging to a suspect and installed it in his car.

All the vehicles were parked at the back of the police station.

The stolen battery was allegedly later found in the police officer’s sedan, whose make and registration numbers are known to this newspaper but will not be revealed for now.

This was apparently during a roadblock mounted near Mkhondvo Bridge.

The police vans, registered GSD 886 PO and GSD 664 PO, are valued at around E90 000 each.

The two vans are said to be repairable as they were not damaged extensively. When the fire broke out, officers were woken up to put out the fire that had engulfed the two vans, which were parked on either side of the private vehicle. They were too late to extinguish flames from the suspect’s sedan. It was damaged beyond repairs.

The police believed their vans caught fire from the burning sedan.

Police seniors told the Times SUNDAY that they got to know that one of their own allegedly stole the battery when they inspected the exterior and interior of his car.

His colleagues in the Traffic Department allegedly questioned him about the battery. They wanted to know how a battery reported stolen was found installed in his car.

According to a very cooperative Hleta, the suspect allegedly got angry and left his car at the scene of the roadblock.

It is said that the traffic police did not arrest him because they felt it would be easier to get hold of him since he lived with them at the police camp.

Traffic police then drove his car to the police station for safety.

At the police station, the battery was removed from the suspect’s car and kept at an Exhibit Room. Superintendent Wendy Hleta, the Public Relations Officer (PRO), said suspicion that a police officer’s hand was involved became strong when the suspect was seen by a night patrolling police officer running away after the incident.

She said the patrolling officer was drawn outside by a foul smell from the parking lot. After that, she said, there was an explosion (kubhoma).

Hleta said police were looking for him with the intention to arrest and slap him with several charges that include damage of property and attempts to destroy exhibits for a criminal case in which he was implicated.

She said the police officer disappeared from work after the incident. She said his whereabouts were still unknown.

"We will definitely arrest him. We have strong grounds to believe that he is responsible for the burning of the cars. We aren’t investigating a case of a bomb explosion but arson. It was bad of him to burn the cars, even if one belongs to him," said Superintendent Hleta.

Sources said the suspect could have burnt the car to destroy the exhibit because his job was on the line.

"He feared that he would lose his job if he was arrested and convicted of theft and he might have felt that the best way was to set his own car on fire. Unfortunately, there were cars parked next to his, which caught fire and got damaged," said one of the police sources.

‘Cops should tell the truth’

MBABANE – Civil society calls upon the police to investigate the matter with intensity to ascertain causes and reasons for the burning of the vehicles.

Muzi Mhlanga, Secretary General of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT), said police should tell the truth so that no one could either say it was an arson attack or bomb explosion.

"They can simply say it was a bomb when it was not; let the police investigate the matter thoroughly. We want to know the truth about the burning of the vehicles," said Mhlanga. He said a police station was a public place for safety.

"It is where we run to in times of danger. It is where we hide from our enemies and it’s where we keep our cars for safety if we feel we cannot drive for long hours because of tiredness. We get terrified if such things happen at a police station," he said.

Quinton Dlamini, the President of the National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAPSAWU), said it meant the officers based at KaPhunga were weaklings despite the fact that this police station housed the Operational Support Services Unit (OSSU) – a police riot squad.

He said it also meant it would be difficult for them to arrest outsiders if they failed to see that an insider was dangerous to them.

"It’s an embarrassing situation if you can’t see that your own member is dangerous," said Dlamini.

He was not aware of the incident until this newspaper interviewed him about it.

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