39 BOOZE SELLERS, IMBIBERS ARRESTED IN MANZINI

MANZINI – Creativity and innovation is at the forefront in the hub of the country – Manzini - as 39 people were arrested for being drunk or selling alcoholic beverages.

The arrested individuals were found at Mangwaneni, a peri-urban township about four kilometres from the central business district of Manzini. This was during the random raids conducted by the Manzini Disaster Management Task Team headed by Chief Gija. Chief Gija, who is also the Regional Administrator, said given that the region was declared an epicentre of the coronavirus, there was a need to mitigate the challenges differently from the other regions.

He said one of the strategies of dealing with this was to raid the various townships within the region as they had gathered that alcohol was in abundance, despite the ban of liquor sales by government. While raiding Mangwaneni Township, Chief Gija said his team arrested 39 people who were either found drunk or selling home-brewed alcohol. “We have noted with concern that some of the hot spots in the region are informal townships where the sale of liquor is rampant while also being drunk is normal despite that the COVID-19 era is not a normal period,” Chief Gija said.

Creative

The RA said imbibers had become so creative and innovative such that they had started brewing alcohol from rice. In jest, Chief Gija said the alcoholic content of this brand of home-brewed liquor was so strong such that one had to sit and face the direction he or she would walk towards after the drinking spree. “Once you drink the liquor brewed from rice, you lose all sense of direction and focus on where you are looking as if you are riding a bicycle,” he said. With such acts, he said it was disheartening to note that the public was not cooperating with government as the ban of liquor sales was aimed at mitigating the surge of confirmed cases.

He said in the informal settlements, what was discovered during the raids was that the imbibers shared the alcoholic containers, which in turn exposed them to contracting the virus.
Leading to the raids, Chief Gija requested the authorisation of Cabinet to raid and take possession of alcohol sold in locations and townships.

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