SOLDIERS DETAIN SNAT EXECUTIVE MEMBER FOR 3HRS

SITEKI- Soldiers stationed at an army checkpoint detained a teacher for about three hours, accusing her of disrespect.

Sitile Dube, a teacher at Sitsatsaweni High School, endured the nightmarish experience while returning from work on Wednesday afternoon.
Dube is a member of the executive committee of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT). She is the representative for Lubombo teachers in the union’s Resolutions Committee.

Narrating her ordeal, Dube said the quarrel between her and the soldiers began in the morning when she was on her way to school.
“I usually board a bus at a bus stop situated near the army checkpoint. But since it was raining yesterday (Wednesday), I decided to drive to the bus stop,” she narrated.

When she arrived at the bus stop, Dube parked her car by the roadside near the army checkpoint.
However, this did not go down well with the soldiers, who ordered that she removes the vehicle.

“They ordered that I should remove the vehicle and park it on the other side of the road. I did not have a problem with that but the challenge I had was that the bus had arrived, so I could not delay it while I parked the vehicle as per their orders,” said Dube.
She said the soldiers, who were armed with automatic rifles, blocked her from boarding the bus, insisting that she would not leave until she had parked the vehicle as per their instructions.

“They then ordered the bus driver to leave and he complied and drove away, leaving me behind at the checkpoint,” said Dube.
She then exchanged heated words with the soldiers before she boarded her vehicle and drove off, following the bus, which was moving towards the Sitsatsaweni direction.

  “The soldiers ordered me to stop but I continued driving since I was rushing to work. I overheard one of them rhetorically asking where I was going to pass in the afternoon after knocking off from work,” she recalled.

Army checkpoint
After knocking off from work, Dube drove towards Siteki town with two other male teachers inside the vehicle. She was to pass by the army checkpoint since there were no alternative routes.
When she arrived at the army checkpoint, she said armed soldiers surrounded her vehicle and ordered the two male teachers to get out of the car.
“They then placed cones in front and at the rear of the vehicle. They told me that I was not going to leave that place until the arrival of their bosses,” Dube said.
She said the two male teachers who had been forced out of the vehicle by the soldiers did not immediately leave but waited at a distance, fearing that something bad would happen to her.
However, their presence infuriated the soldiers and they ordered the two male teachers to leave, said Dube. “They told me that the presence of the two male teachers was making things worse,” she said.
While inside the vehicle, Dube got a chance to send an SOS to the SNAT Siteki branch executive committee through a phone call.
She also received a call from SNAT Secretary General, Sikelela Dlamini, who had been informed of Dube’s plight by the two male teachers.
“Dlamini asked to speak to the soldiers but they refused, telling me that they would only speak to their superiors,” Dube stated.
Eventually, SNAT Siteki branch committee members arrived at the scene to negotiate  for Dube.
But by the time they arrived, the army boss whom the soldiers had been waiting for had also arrived.
Dube said the army boss told her that her sin was the manner in which she had responded to the soldiers, when they confronted her in the morning.
Dube was eventually released after almost three hours seated inside her vehicle while surrounded by armed soldiers.
“I was embarrassed, humiliated and I was also traumatised by the whole experience,” she said.
Dlamini, the SNAT Secretary General said they were awaiting a report from the local branch of SNAT before taking the matter forward.
“We will analyse the report and it will tell us if we have to take the matter forward,” he said.
Lot Vilakati, the local SNAT branch Secretary, confirmed that he personally rushed to the army checkpoint to negotiate the release of Dube.

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