697 PEOPLE ARRESTED DURING UNREST

MBABANE – A total of 697 people, including two Members of Parliament (MPs), have been arrested so far following the political unrest recently witnessed in the country.

This was confirmed by the National Commissioner of Police, William Dlamini, who, through a statement, highlighted that the investigation process was still forging ahead and they anticipated that more violators of the law, be it instigators of violence and other players in the broad spectrum of unruliness, would be caught by the long tentacles of the law. He appealed to all those who were in possession of looted properties to surrender them to the police to avoid facing the law. Dlamini said in the past weeks, Eswatini had witnessed acts of violence that were unprecedented in the history of the country of which were denoted by wide scale looting of businesses and burning of properties, including business properties and structures belonging to government. The statement highlighted that as a police service, assisted by contingents from sister security forces/services, they were on the ground doing their best to maintain law and order and restore peace and tranquillity.

“We are grateful for the support and goodwill that we received from law abiding citizens during what was a very difficult period and we look forward to continued cooperation as we move ahead with the discharge of our mandate,” he said. He said what glared during the unrest, were the rampant acts of criminality and violations of the law that were committed with shocking impunity. According to Dlamini, the laws violated cover among others the Common Law and Statutory Laws such as the Suppression of Terrorism Act of 2008, Public Order Act of 2017, Road Traffic Act of 2007 and Coronavirus-COVID-19 Regulations 2020 under the Disaster Management Act 01/2006. This publication has reported several cases of civilians being convicted for various crimes they committed they committed during the unrest.

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