Times Of Swaziland: COPS PUSHED, BEAT ME UP - TEACHER

COPS PUSHED, BEAT ME UP - TEACHER
================================================================================
Sibusiso Zwane on 16/01/2020 08:17:00


MANZINI - Wild accusations continue to be thrown from all angles as unions try
to prove that the alleged police brutality was indeed experienced during
workers’ demonstrations.
In fact, Ncobile Simelane, a teacher at Masundvwini High School, whose leg was
fractured during TUCOSWA’s protest action which was held in Manzini in
September 2018, alleged that she was pushed from the back by police officers and
assaulted with batons while groaning in pain on the pavement. TUCOSWA is the
Trade Union Congress of Swaziland. The educator made this submission yesterday
when the investigation committee, which is probing the alleged police brutality
on protestors during demonstrations, conducted an inspection in loco in Manzini
where the teacher was injured.
Bathroom
She submitted that it was around 1pm and the protest action was over when she
decided to go to the bathroom at King Somhlolo Park with two of her colleagues.
Thereafter, she said they spotted some police officers whom they knew and went
to chat with them at the park. Out of the blue, she alleged that they heard some
whistles from the Bhunu Mall direction and armed police officers who were
standing near a vehicle from the Operational Support Service Unit (OSSU) by
Manzini Post Office, ran towards the mall. “As some of them ran past the park,
they were saying; ‘sesidziniwe ngulabantfu laba (we are tired of these
people)’,” she submitted.
Leaving
Soon thereafter, she alleged the police officers whom they were talking to also
ran towards the same direction and they walked towards the road with the aim of
leaving town. However, she alleged that as they approached the road, they heard
gunshot sounds from the Manzini Post Office direction and they were left with no
choice but to run towards the Bhunu Mall direction. “As we ran, my colleagues
outpaced me. As I continued to run for cover, police started assaulting me on
the back using batons and I jumped to the pavement. As I run along the pavement,
they pushed me and I fell to the ground,” the teacher alleged. She also
submitted that while she was groaning in pain on the pavement as her leg got
fractured, every police officer who ran past her, allegedly assaulted her on the
body and thighs with batons.
According to the teacher, she was allegedly rescued by a senior officer who
stopped and asked her why she was lying on the pavement and she told him that
she was injured. She said the senior officer then called other officers and
instructed them to assist her to get into an ambulance, which rushed her to the
Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital. The teacher started delivering her
testimony from King Somhlolo Park to the pavement which is opposite Nedbank
where she was injured. After her testimony, the Chairman of investigation
committee, Manzini Principal Magistrate David Khumalo, asked both parties if
they had queries about Simelane’s submissions and both of them said they had
nothing to question.