Times Of Swaziland: ‘DAGGA DEALERS STRIPPED, BEAT ME UP’

‘DAGGA DEALERS STRIPPED, BEAT ME UP’
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BY SIBUSISO ZWANE on 07/03/2019 01:25:00


MANZINI - A 70-year-old mkhulu, who is a herdman in businessman Tommy Kirk’s
farm, is surely thanking the timely intervention of community members for saving
his life in the hands of ruthless dagga dealers.
This was after the old man was allegedly taken to a mountain by a mob of dagger
farmers, who stripped him naked and assaulted him for allegedly spying on them
to the police.
The incident took place at Nyakeni on Monday morning, and it was after police
officers raided the area and destroyed dagga fields. Some of the dagga fields
were destroyed in a farm owned by well-known businessman  Kirk, where Mbholofidi
Ginindza (70) is working as a security and herdman.
Linked
However, the businessman is not linked to the growing of dagga in the farm, as
it was gathered that the alleged farmers were doing it without his knowledge.
According to Ginindza, the police came to destroy dagga in the area in the wee
hours of Monday. He said when they left around 9:30am, two men came to him while
he was inside the farm and asked that he goes with them to a nearby homestead.
Upon arriving at the homestead, Ginindza alleged that he found a group of about
10 men, who asked him to narrate why he and the police destroyed their dagga in
the farm.
“I told them that I knew nothing about dagga and I referred them to the owner
of the farm and the police,” he said.
He said while they were interrogating him, elders of the community kicked them
out of the homestead and said it was not a place for hearing cases. “They
dragged me to a nearby forest where they assaulted me with fists and kicks all
over the body,” he alleged.
However, he claimed that some of them argued that the forest was close to
homesteads and suggested that they should take him to a nearby mountain.
He said when they arrived at the mountain, they ordered him to take off his
clothes including shoes, something he did not do. He said the mob forcefully
undressed him and threw him on the gravel road at the top of the mountain and
demanded answers as to when he was going to give them back their dagga which was
destroyed by the police, after he tipped them off about the illegal herb which
they were growing in the farm.
“I maintained that I did not know how the police learnt about it because I had
no clue that there were dagga fields in the farm,” he alleged.