MP MABHANISI PLACED UNDER POLICE PROTECTION

MBABANE – Kwaluseni Member of Parliament (MP) Sibusiso ‘Mabhanisi’ Dlamini has been placed under police protection.

This was after the MP told the High Court yesterday that he feared for his life after receiving threats following the leaking of a statement he recorded with Matsapha police, which was circulated on social media. The statement was recorded on June 15, 2021 after the youth, purportedly from Kwaluseni Constituency, attacked him and other members of the constituency committee when they delivered a petition at the inkhundla centre on the same day. When he informed the court about the threats he was receiving, Dlamini had completed giving evidence during the trial of Hosea and Ngwempisi MPs Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube. Dlamini said: “May I say something. I have a problem. My life is at risk. I have placed my life at risk with the testimony I have given. My family is in the wilderness because of threats I am subjected to on social media that the statement I recorded with the police was leaked.

Democracy

“I wonder what will happen to me. In the democracy of today if you do not agree with their opinions you become an enemy. As I leave now I don’t know what will happen to me. There were five of us at the inkhundla and I did not choose to come and testify. I thought I was stating the truth about what happened when I recorded the statement. As I leave this place, I don’t know what will happen to me, my home, relatives and children. I am in pain. I am asking for protection.” Advocate Gareth Leppan, who represents the Crown, said he would take the matter up with the investigating officer. Mabuza and Dude’s representative, Advocate Jacobus Van Vuuren said he had nothing to say about the issue. Judge Dlamini advised MP Dlamini to wait in court while the registrar called the director of crimes to attend to his matter. When the case proceeded in the afternoon, Judge Dlamini informed Deputy National Commissioner Manoma Masango that the court was handing MP Sibusiso over to him since he had asked to be provided with security. “I am handing him over to you,” said the judge. In his evidence, MP Sibusiso said he did not know which party Wandile Dludlu belonged to. He alleged that Dludlu addressed the gathering when the youth delivered a petition at Knwaluseni. He also alleged that Dludlu told him that his house would be bombed if their grievances were not addressed within 14 days. He informed the court that no one was injured on the day of the delivery of the petition.

Advocate Leppan asked who Dludlu is. MP Sibusiso said he knew Dludlu only as a member of political party. “Which one?” asked Advocate Leppan. “Kunengi letintfo tabo (there are many of those). I’m not aware and I don’t want to channel myself,” said MP Sibusiso. He disputed that he made a statement to the effect that the people of Kwaluseni loved the Tinkhundla System of Government. He said the youth wanted him to withdraw that statement. He submitted that he had summarised what had been said by an elderly woman whom the Queen Mother had built a house for. The elderly woman, according to the MP has said they were happy about what the Queen Mother had done through the Tinkhundla System of Government. “I repeated what the neighbour had said in my statement. That is what they were emphasising on while they were at the constituency,” he told the court. During cross-examination, Advocate Van Vuuren enquired from MP Sibusiso if a charge was laid against Dludlu.

“You didn’t lay a charge against Dludlu or the others,” asked Advocate Van Vuuren and MP Sbusiso said he only recorded a statement with the police. “You did that so the police may open a case against the people?” The MP said he thought that if there was someone who had committed a crime from what he recorded in the statement, the police would have arrested them.  He also said he never went to court to testify regarding the matter. Advocate Van Vuuren further asked MP Sibusiso if people who had complaints, had to submit petitions to their representatives in Parliament. Meanwhile, retired Matsapha Police Station Commander Baraba Ginindza said he did not know what PUDEMO stood for. MP Sibusiso said the delivery of petitions at constituency centres was a new phenomenon. “If people have grievances, they were supposed to go to their umphakatsi and inkhundla through a meeting forum,” he responded. The advocate further enquired what MP Sibusiso did with the petition. “I took it to Parliament because it was not about what happened in the community but was directed to central government,” he said.“Did you raise these grievances in Parliament?” asked the advocate. According to the MP, the petitions were to be deliberated upon. He said they had not been deliberated upon. When asked why not, he told the court that he had made a follow up and was informed that the attorney general categorised the issues first before they were discussed it in Parliament. MP Sibusiso submitted that to date the issues were not deliberated anywhere.

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