PLAYERS ORGANISE STOKVELS - POLICE

MBABANE – Premier league players are the culprits. According to the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS), some of the social football games, otherwise known as ‘stokvels,’ are organised by Premier League players.
The police are having a tough time  controlling people, especially the youth, as they struggle to put to an end the stovels played every week, particularly in Mbabane and surrounding areas.

Yesterday, police officers and His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) officers were found patrolling in close proximity to the Youth Centre Sports Ground near Extension 3 after trying without success to apprehend people who were playing football at the sports ground.

Despite that Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini announced the restart of other sports considered to be ow risk, football is a contact sport making it a high risk in as far as transmission of the virus is concerned and, therefore, remained banned.
Inspector Israel Simelane, who was among the officers patrolling at the youth centre, said when they approached those who were playing football at this venue, they fled.
However, the law enforcers managed to seize the ball.

Confiscate

“The least we can do is to confiscate the soccer balls. We will open an enquiry at the station, and if your ball is at the station, that particular individual will have to give an explanation,” said the officer. He urged teams and parents to assist government by talking to their children to stop playing football while it remained banned.
“Though I cannot mention names, it is sad to state that some Premier League players organise these social games as some were spotted here today (yesterday),” said Simelane.

He then urged those who have their football balls at the police station to come and collect them but highlighted that they would first have to explain to the station commander on how the balls ended up at the station.
The police officer said they had serious challenges in controlling stokvels staged at inaccessible areas.
Simelane mentioned a number of sports grounds where they had difficulty in controlling playing of football as people continued to break the law.

These include the youth centre, Msunduza, Emobeni (near Mvakwelitje) and Mangwaneni.
Drawn for comment, Police Information and Communications Officer Inspector Nosipho Mnguni said they maintained that as per the COVID-19 regulations, football remains banned.
Playing football is not allowed, it remains banned in the kingdom,” she said.
Mnguni added that if people continued to breach the regulation, they will have no other choice but to carry out arrests as per their job mandate.

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