Times Of Swaziland: LAWYER: MTHANDENI, BACEDE, 7 INMATES ASSAULTED BY 20 WARDERS

LAWYER: MTHANDENI, BACEDE, 7 INMATES ASSAULTED BY 20 WARDERS
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Mbongiseni Ndzimandze and Stanley Khumalo on 23/09/2022 07:01:00


MATSAPHA – Incarcerated Members of Parliament (MPs) Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and
Mthandeni Dube were yesterday reportedly assaulted in an ordeal that is said to
have lasted for about 45 minutes.
According to impeccable sources, the legislators, with seven other inmates, were
allegedly assaulted by officers from His Majesty’s Correctional Services
(HMCS) yesterday at the crack of dawn, just before 6am. It was alleged that
about 20 officers from the Rapid Response Unit, which is a para-military unit of
HMCS, went to the cell occupied by the Hosea Constituency MP Mabuza and
Ngwempisi Constituency MP Dube.
It was alleged that during the attack, the Correctional officers had their faces
covered in balaclavas. Upon entry, it was alleged that the officers started
assaulting the two legislators with open hand, fists, kicks and they also used
spray guns.
Expletives
As this was happening, the sources alleged that the Correctional officers were
using expletives and also claiming that it was ‘an eye for an eye’.
Seeing this, it was said that the seven inmates occupying the same cell with the
MPs, tried to intervene and questioned the violence. However, the intervention
of the inmates supposedly drew the ire of the HMCS personnel as they supposedly
started assaulting them as well. During the skirmish, it was alleged the law
enforcers continued to use all sorts of missiles and assaulted all inmates in
the cell.
Injury
The sources claimed that MP Dube was also pressed with a bed and against the
wall such that he sustained an injury to his eye. On the other hand, it was
purported that MP Mabuza was assaulted all over the body, in such a way that he
bled profusely through his nose. Following the allegations of the assault of the
legislators and the other inmates, their legal representative, Ben J. Simelane,
went to the Matsapha Correctional Facility where the incident was said to have
happened. He arrived at the Correctional Facility at about 11am to engage with
his clients. Simelane confirmed the series of events as narrated to him by his
clients when he went to see them. He said: “Dube was also pressed with a bed
and against the wall - he sustained an injury to his eye. Mabuza was assaulted
all over the body and even bled from the nose.”
Inmates
The senior attorney said the other inmates also (allegedly) sustained injuries
and were treated at the HMCS clinic. Simelane shared the names of the other
inmates allegedly assaulted by the warders as well. The purported assault of the
MPs and other inmates also drew the ire of social media as Senior Journalist and
Editor of The Nation Magazine, Bheki Makhubu, in a comment regarding the
violence in Correctional facilities, said: “The invasion of cells at night is
done as a matter of course in our prisons. Why nobody has ever taken the prison
authorities to court for this, completely escapes me.
“When I was told about it on arrival at Sidwashini, I sent a very clear
message to the prison authorities that I would make a lot of noise for them if
they ever did it to me. Imagine being stripped naked, slapped around in the dead
of the night by a man young enough to be your son? (sic)” Makhubu said the
assault of inmates horrified him by just merely thinking about it. Luckily for
him, he said: “They got the message because throughout my time there, not a
single cell was ever raided. However, two weeks after I’d left, they did just
that, going back to what they knew best.” He recalled that on the afternoon he
was released, one young inmate told a senior officer that; “Wahamba Makhubu,
sinyile ngini, senitasishaya ngekutsandza kwenu,” which loosely meant that now
that Makhubu has left, you will assault us anytime you want. Makhubu said the
Correctional officer, the message was addressed to, did not respond. He said
that young man would later tell him after his own release that they did just
that (assault them).