TRAVELLING NIGHTMARE AFTER PERMITS CONFUSION

MBABANE – Chaos, disorder, confusion are all the synonyms which could be used to best describe what transpired yesterday with regard to travel permits.

As much as people boarded different modes of transport, they seemingly had no idea what they were expected to produce as proof of authority to travel when they got to police roadblocks.

This was because the travel permits were only processed yesterday by the National Road Transportation Council, chaired by Sihlangu Nhlabatsi.
As a result, people resorted to all sorts of tricks, especially at the chiefdom level, where they received the royal kraal stamp allowing them passage to their various work stations and transportation to hospitals.

However, it was not going to be a walk in the park as the police were quite strict and many people were turned back.

Forms

Nhlabatsi, who was speaking on national radio yesterday during a programme called ‘Kabanti’, said the forms had since been produced and would be delivered to all police stations in the country.
He said in turn the police stations would notify Members of Parliament who worked closely with tindvuna tetinkhundla and bucopho for the distribution of the forms.

He said the permit letters would be very limited in terms of the number issued per day and that the forms were strictly for those people who needed medical attention and to buy food.
He said this was particularly for people who were old and required a special diet. He advised that people should not flood the Tinkhundla centres or RA offices for unnecessary travel and advised that they stayed at home.

He said at the most, only three permits would be given in any one place and they were specific for that day of travel.
Nhlabatsi further advised people to use their local grocery shops if they  wanted to buy food instead of going to other towns.

 Vigilant

However, many people were stuck in traffic as the police were quite vigilant.
However, some emaswati found humour in the whole process of getting the royal kraals stamps and started writing fake travel passes on any piece of paper.
Some of the notes were simply written ‘myekeleni uya emsebentini’ (let him/her through they are going to work), while others had messages that were totally unrelated to any kind of work, but had to do with sleepovers.

Others made the effort of getting an authentic document from the tinkhundla which were signed by bucopho and had a stamp from the Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development relating the kind of work which they were supposed to be providing as an essential service.
In summary, people who have an essential reason to travel should try and get in touch with their constituency leaders and get the forms.

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