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COPS TURNED TO DEBT COLLECTORS?

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Sir,

I do not know whether it is aggressive marketing that Swazi TV is applying or blatant persecution of the consumers who just happened to purchase a gadget they use for their own amusement.


This, I draw from the police ‘escorts’ this team seems to have acquired; which brings to question what the core mandate of the police is if they can now be turned into debt collectors at whim! This is abuse of State resources because I do not believe Swazi TV pays for the resources of deploying police to just collect or harass people for TV licences. Furniture shops and other organisations that have debt collection as part of their work hire personnel for such; what makes Swazi TV different? Must the Swaziland Water Services Corporation also ‘employ’ the police to collect the over E100 million they are owed?


I doubt very much that this TV licence craze is a marketing thing and if it is; then it is atrocious, it needs to be re-planned. This is what we get for not having strong and legally empowered consumer activism in the country; corporate organisations shall continue to toy with our rights with impunity. I agree with Mr Mdluli from the Consumer Association that the use of the police in this manner smacks total disregard of people’s dignity. When I owe a furniture shop for having bought on hire purchase, the debt collector does not bring the media to do his or her work; now what in the world is Swazi TV doing?


Is it not time to really scrutinise if such laws like TV licence, dog tax etc are still applicable in this day and age? With technological advancements having influenced TV productions, what shall Swazi TV do if we throw away our TVs and resort to watching TV content from such gadgets as Tablets etc because we can now watch live stream TV in that mode? Shall we have cellphone or Smartphone tax next?


I think Swazi TV lost it when they failed to study where technology is headed, for they would have rode on the Satellite TV development such that when we subscribe to organisations like Multichoice for DStv, they get their share too. The issue of TV licences is now archaic. With DStv, if you have not updated your subscription they simply switch off your access; no public harassment nor ‘hiring’ of State police to collect subscriptions. This craziness must just stop and other means of making money are devised by Swazi TV’s Marketing Department. This is not acceptable.

Ntshalintshali P
Mbabane

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