COPS USE LIVE ROUNDS TO DISPERSE KUKHANYENI PROTESTERS

MANZINI – Police had to use live rounds to disperse protesters at Kukhanyeni Constituency.

This was after the protesters, who delivered their petition to the constituency’s Member of Parliament (MP), Malavi Sihlongonyane, blocked the main road leading to other chiefdoms and also linking it with Manzini.
The protesters are said to have set alight firewood and tyres on the road while also blocking it with rocks as they sang political songs. This happened on Saturday after lunch at the constituency which is located about 25 kilometres north of Manzini.

According to one of the organisers of the protest, Sakhile Nxumalo, they delivered their petition to the constituency centre. However, he bemoaned that they were locked out of the constituency centre and had to hand it over to their MP through a small opening in the gate. He said one of the core issues raised in the petition was development, which he claimed had not taken place despite that there had been a prime minister (PM) from the area. The PM was deceased Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini.  He also said during the 2013 -2018 term, the constituency had the PM and his deputy from the area, Paul Dlamini, but there was minimal development. Nxumalo said this deprived the youth of opportunities that would assist them to develop as they would have opportunities to even explore business opportunities that would bring about employment.

Development

“We’ve had an MP who was once a minister and both the PM and the DPM came from our area but we are still lagging in terms of development,” he said. The organiser acknowledged that the protesters ended up being dispersed by police who fired live rounds of ammunition. He said during the skirmish no person was injured by the bullets. Worth noting is that the skirmish was said to have taken place away from the constituency centre.
Also confirming that police had to fire in the air, was the Deputy Police Information and Communications Officer Inspector Nosipho Mnguni. She said the situation became chaotic such that two police officers were injured when the protesters pelted them with stones. Mnguni said the police were forced to shoot into the air in order to disperse the crowd which had become violent.

The purpose of dispersing the crowd, according to Mnguni, was that the road had been blocked and traffic was stuck as tyres and wood were burnt on the road. Meanwhile, the constituency’s MP confirmed receiving the petition and said the protesters were peaceful and where there was an instance that one of them became unruly, he was called to order by the organisers.

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