Times Of Swaziland: PENSIONERS KICK POLICE  ‘SPIES’ OUT OF MEETING

PENSIONERS KICK POLICE  ‘SPIES’ OUT OF MEETING
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 BY THEMBINKOSI MAVIMBELA AND COLISILE MAMBA on 24/08/2017 04:53:00


MSUNDUZA – Two gate crashing police officers were yesterday chucked out of a
meeting by pensioners.
A very rare scene transpired when the Mbabane Branch of the Pensioners’
Association met at the Mbabane Roman Catholic Church Hall where two plain-
clothes police officers being kicked out. One of the officers, a male, took a
back seat on arrival and followed proceedings with his head faced to the ground
for the better part of the meeting. He was identified after a while by the
Branch Chairman Osvart Sukati who was seated at the stage facing the members.
Sukati walked from the stage to the back of the hall, asked to have a word with
the officers and instructed them to leave. In their defence, the officers are
said to have said they were sent by someone they identified as commissioner to
attend the meeting.
That did not sway the chairman from his order as he told the officers to tell
the Commissioner that they were not invited to the meeting and their presence
was not wanted.
The other officer, a female, when asked about what she was doing at the meeting,
is said to have claimed that she was there on behalf of her pensioned mother.
Like her colleague, she was also sent packing.
“Ngibacoshe ngesibindzi ngobe ngeSiSwati, nakukhuluma bantfu labadzala
bantfwana abadzingeki, (I bravely kicked them out because even culturally,
children are not supposed to sit among elders when they have a meeting),”
Sukati said.
Upon announcement of the news of police invasion in the meeting, pensioners took
turns relating their disgust at the police intrusion.
Former District Commissioner Elliot Mkhatshwa bluntly stated that the police had
sent spies to illegally solicit information from them. Mkhatshwa added that the
commissioner should be charged or find the officers who had used his name to
justify their presence in the meeting.
To ensure that it never happens again, Mkhatshwa proposed that the next intruder
be held and instructed to tell them why they were in attendance at the meeting
without getting an invitation. He suspected that some of their members had
tipped the police about their meeting.
“Letincutsi letilana kitsi atiphele nebakitsi ngobe sitatibamba,” he said.
Former Chief Government Motor Vehicle Inspector Bhantjana Gwebu suggested that
members carry their personal identity cards, which would serve as an entry
requirement.