GUNSHOTS AS UNKNOWN PEOPLE BLOCK ROADS, BURN TYRES

MANZINI – Motorists driving along the KaKhoza, New Village and Fairview roads were this past weekend blocked by a group of unknown people who burnt tyres and garbage, thus blocking roads.

The group of people then demanded money, ranging from E20. This is the same occurrence that was experienced by motorists during last year’s June/July political unrest, where many roads in the country were inaccessible as a majority of the streets had skips turned upside down and waste littered all over and set alight. Huge rocks were also placed on the roads and motorists were made to pay for travelling on the roads. KaKhoza area was one of the areas where the road leading in and out of Manzini towards Matsapha was blocked since Friday night. Armed security forces comprising of members of the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF) and the Operational Support Services Unit (OSSU) arrived and reportedly fired gunshots to disperse the people. KaKhoza community police member Phillip Sithole said the road was blocked on Friday and Saturday night consecutively, and the area was filled with the sounds of gunshots.

burning

“A large group of people around 30, were seen burning tyres and rubbish to block the road at the traffic lights. They further demand money from the motorists and this is not different from robbery, we are not even aware who is behind this,” Sithole said. The community police member was of the assertion that they had thought to have eliminated this kind of crime, but seemingly it persisted. Sithole said the armed security forces immediately arrived and fired warning shots to disperse the people who were terrorising motorists. Sithole said the way it was going, the past year’s crimes were recurring and it was unfortunate that they could not attend to the perpetrators because they outnumbered them (community police). “Government should start doing something about this before it gets out of hand, because these people are large in numbers and they group themselves. They become dangerous because they are in groups,” the community police member said.  

In the same vein, a resident of New Village disclosed that it was around 11pm on Saturday when several gunshots were heard from the direction of the main road. He said this was after a group of people were blocking vehicles and demanding money from them. The group of people reportedly immediately fled the scene. Meanwhile, the road at KaMkhonta, Fairview area, was blocked with tree branches and cars had to use alternative routes to get to their destinations at around 1am yesterday, according to a resident. The resident revealed that he was on his way home from ferrying a relative to Matsapha, when he was met with a pile of tree branches laid on the road. “I could not alight from the car for fear of being attacked, so I used an alternative route which is longer, to get home. I also called the police and informed them about what I saw,” he said.

Moments later, the community member shared that he heard gunshots being fired at the junction of the same road. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed reports of road blockades by unknown people on the said roads in the hub of the city. Vilakati warned perpetrators against these acts.

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