SUSPECTED COCAINE AT MINISTRY

MBABANE – A senior government official will assist police in identifying a woman who allegedly brought what looked like drugs to his office.
The unknown woman understandably concealed the supposed drugs in a large pack of niknaks.

She allegedly told the secretaries she found at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security that she had brought some snacks for the senior officer to eat on the airplane. The ministry is housed at the Interministerial complex.
This happened on Monday. It must be said that the actual type of the drug is yet to be confirmed by experts in drug detection and control.

mixture of cocaine

However, the civil servants who came into contact with the parcel believe it was a mixture of cocaine, mandrax and a block of compressed dagga.
The name of the officer would not be disclosed at this stage pending the outcome of a police investigation.
He is currently out of the country on government duties.

However, sources said the high ranking official had already left for the airport when the woman arrived at his office with the parcel. Seeing that the officer had already left for the airport, she allegedly left the stuff with the secretaries.

fetch his parcel

She told them to hand it over to the public officer. One of the secretaries, according to sources, telephoned the high-ranking officer to come back to the office to fetch his parcel.
Impeccable sources said he told them he had already left Mbabane for the King Mswati III International Airport. He reportedly told them that it was not going to be possible to return to the office because he did not want to miss his flight.

The source said he then told them to eat the snacks. When they opened the pack, they stumbled upon wrapped and compressed stuff, which they suspected to be drugs, hence they called the police.

drug sniffer dogs

Police promptly arrived at the Interministerial building to conduct a search, according to sources. They allegedly came with drug sniffer dogs.
They left the complex after they had conducted a thorough  search and combed the senior government official’s office.
“I don’t think they found any other stuff in his office,” said the source.
However, they took with them the stuff that was wrapped in a Niknaks pack for further investigation.

officer Aware of issue

In an interview, the officer said he had been made aware of the issue. He said he would not discuss it because it was being handled by the police.
The officer insisted that he would not entertain further questions because he did not know anything about the stuff. He was also concerned about the people who leaked the information to the Times SUNDAY.

Chief Police Information and Communication Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati said the matter had not been officially reported to them.
Sources close to the police said they did not want to discuss the matter in the public space because the officer in question could be scared of returning to the country.

However, there were two sides to the story as it was also possible that it was a set-up engineered to discredit the officer.
Percy Simelane, the Government Press Secretary, said it was a criminal offence to be found with drugs. He said such cases should be dealt with by the police.

not officially informed

Asked if his office or that of the prime minister were made aware of the issue, he said they had not been officially informed about it.
Simelane said the prime minister was above the administration hierarchy to be involved in a ministerial issue.
“If he gets to know about such, it is surely for his information rather than for action,” he said.

Thulani Mkhaliphi, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, said the matter was outside his boundaries.
“I have been informed that the Royal Eswatini Police are investigating the matter and that is all I can say at the moment,” said Mkhaliphi.

Minister of Labour and Social Security Makhosi Vilakati said he would investigate the matter upon return from abroad. Vilakati insisted that he would ‘seriously’ follow the matter.

One of the civil servants said the stuff inside the pack of Niknaks were not chips but drugs.
“That was cocaine, I know it,” he said.
He said he had seen drugs before and could attest to the fact that these were harmful substances wrapped nicely so that they were not easily distinguished.
 In 2017, a drug dealer was allegedly found in possession of cocaine with a street value of E24 million.
The man was from Tanzania. The cocaine was stashed in a spare compartment in the vehicle in 30 different plastic bags which weighed 2kg each.

selling cocaine
In December the same year, a house at Zakhele Township in Manzini was busted by the police after a tip-off that some Tanzanians were selling cocaine there.
Global cocaine production hit record levels in 2017 after surging by 25 per cent in just a single year, a United Nations report had found.
Of the 1976 tonnes of 100 per cent pure cocaine produced, a record 1 275 were seized by authorities, but researchers at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimated the drug was still consumed by 18.1 million people worldwide in 2017.

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