EX-WANDERERS STAR BANKA DEPORTED

MBABANE – Take him and his friends back to Ghana. Those are the words that Senior Magistrate Nonhlanhla Dlamini ran short of pronouncing when she sentenced former Manzini Wanderers and Pigg’s Peak Black Swallows’ Ghanaian defender Baki Banka and two others yesterday at the Mbabane Magistrate’s Court.

Banka and his co-accused, recognised as Anthony and Yusuf, all appeared before the court for breaching the country’s immigration rules in that they did not have the necessary residential permit papers to be here.

Their crime, as read by the magistrate, was that they attempted to get residential work permits through forged documents from the National Football Association of Swaziland (NFAS). The CEO, Frederick Mngomezulu’s signature was the reason they were caught, a government official from the immigrations department confirmed.

 Upon realising that they no longer had a legal right to be in the country despite being professional football players who depend on contracts from clubs, they used illegal means, forging a letter purported to be approval and proof that they had jobs with football clubs.
“I plead guilty,” Banka responded when asked to enter his plea and his co-accused also pleaded guilty to the charge.

The trio was represented by Lawyer Veli Ndzinisa who explained to the court that the accused were in this situation due to a technical error. He said that at the time they were apprehended as illegal immigrants, they were not attached to their club Black Swallows – one is said to be with another team in the capital city.

“They are solely here because of football employment but due to many reasons like running out of favour or change in coaches, they lost contracts but within three months from now, they’ll all be in clubs and they still have a good chance to get their matter resolved with the Immigrations Department,” Ndzinisa appealed.

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