ALCOHOL RAIDS COMING IN MANZINI

MANZINI – As COVID-19 statistics surge daily in the hub of the country – Manzini – the regional administrator wants security personnel to raid homesteads to confiscate alcohol.

The RA, Chief Gija, said his office (Regional Rapid Response Team to COVID-19), had requested the authorisation of Cabinet to raid and confiscate alcohol sold in locations and townships. He said this request followed that they had gathered that since the ban of alcohol sales, some liquor shop owners had resorted to partner with shebeen owners to sell alcohol, much against the ban.

Permit

He said they had requested Cabinet to permit them to partner with officers from the operational services support unit (OSSU), which is a division within the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) and officers from the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF). Chief Gija said the need for the security forces was necessitated by the surge in COVID-19 infections as attested to by the Prime Minister, Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, when announcing the ban of alcohol sale and distribution. “We sought permission to search homesteads as alcohol is now sold in townships illegally yet it alters human behaviour, resulting in some of the imbibers acting irresponsibly,” Chief Gija said. He said the unfortunate part was that the illegal sale of alcohol did not even benefit the State as there was no tax collected.

“Manzini is a distribution centre for the country given its geographic location. It is due to fear of having people who are migrating from Manzini to other regions due to loss of employment that we want the region to be treated differently.” He said while the other regions were low on statistics, if the behaviour of the people living within the hub of the country did not change, the country would be in a difficult position as Manzini was a passage to the other regions. “We also forwarded to government that the wearing of masks should be compulsory in Manzini,” he said. He said the fine for not wearing a mask had been requested to range between E60 and E120 while they also sought legal power to have businesses that did not comply with regulations to be fined and have their licences revoked.

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