HOSEA, NGWEMPISI, SIPHOFANENI PROPOSED MARCHES SEPT 6

NHLANGANO – Come September 6, 2021, Hosea, Ngwempisi and Siphofaneni residents have vowed to march to their constituency centres and nearest police stations to deliver petitions.

This is according to posters that are circulating on social media. All the posters are themed ‘Black Monday’. One of the posters is that of Hosea Constituency, which had information that they would be marching to Nhlangano Regional Police Headquarters to request audience with Regional Commissioner Tibonisile Mndziniso and Station Commander Mduduzi Matsebula. In an interview with the organisers who did not want to be named in fear of victimisation, they stated that the purpose of the petition was to request police to stop (allegedly) ill-treating them.

They stated that they were always targeted by the police and each time they came to their area (Hosea), someone would get hurt or property would be destroyed. They made reference to the recent incident of police officers who had come to raid the area for dagga and allegedly destroyed property in over 20 homesteads in the area.

Plans

When one of the organisers was asked where they met to discuss the plans of what was supposed to happen next, he stated that they had their own way of communicating, adding that the march was a decision by all community members who included the elderly. He further mentioned that the elderly would be present during the march as they were also directly affected. The people of Hosea strongly believe that police are targeting two places in the entire constituency, which are KaLiba and Lushini. It was said that the two chiefdoms were where Hosea Indvuna yeNkhundla Richard Vilane and MP Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza were from. Further information gathered was that there would be two minutes of a moment of silence before the petition was delivered. This is not the first petition to be delivered in recent times by Hosea residents as the last time they delivered it was about three weeks ago at Hluthi Police station. They had gone to request that they be arrested instead of their MPs (Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube) as what they (MPs) said about change in the country was something they were sent by them to say in Parliament. The petition delivery was also joined by elderly people.

Killed

Meanwhile, the other posters state that the petitions were meant to demand freedom for all political prisoners and a democratic government. One of the posters states that over 78 people were (allegedly) killed by security forces and no one has been arrested.  
When sought for comment, Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati said nothing had been reported to them. When asked if there was a certain procedure to be followed, she requested not to comment further, while emphasising that no one reported anything about the delivery of petitions to them. It is worth noting that on September 6, 2021 it will be a holiday as it will be Independence Day.

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