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FORMER COP LINKED TO SOLIDARITY FORCES

29/01/2023 16:17:00 Welcome Dlamini

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MBABANE – A former police officer, who served in the Royal Eswatini Police Service for 32 years, has been associated with the Swaziland International Solidarity Forces – an organisation that has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist activities in the country.

These activities include the killing of State security officers, including police, army and Correctional Services personnel. The former police officer has been identified as Thabo Kunene, who last served as a sergeant based at the Siteki Police Station. Pictures of Kunene and five other individuals, all of whom are wearing army paraphernalia have emerged. Although the identities of the men are still being verified, one of them has been confirmed to be Mlandvo Khumalo, who was shot dead by the newly-assembled special missions unit on January 7, 2023 after he had shot and injured an umbutfo (member of the regiments).

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Khumalo, according to information published by an online platform and attributed to a renowned faceless commander, was a member of the Solidarity Forces. Sources within the country’s security agencies disclosed to the Times SUNDAY that the picture of Kunene and the other members of the Solidarity Forces was retrieved from the mobile phone of Khumalo after he had been killed. The picture was then reportedly circulated among security officers and eventually made its way to the public space. “That is a picture of the Solidarity Forces. As you can see in the picture, the one in the middle is Thabo Kunene, who was a sergeant and worked at Siteki. That picture is circulating in a WhatsApp group of officers,” said a source who shared the picture with this publication.

Another State security agency source shared another picture of Kunene with the other members of the Solidarity Forces, but the only difference was the poses of the individuals. However, the location was the same – next to a swimming pool within a fenced settlement. In one of the pictures, Kunene appears to have been the centre of attention as all except one of his companions had their eyes fixated on him as he fastened the camouflage jacket he was wearing. In both pictures, he stood next to the deceased Khumalo. Although it is not clear when Kunene retired, based on a court case in which he was a witness, it can be assumed that he left the police service before 2015. This is because in August 2015, he gave evidence in a case where a Siteki-based woman vendor was suing the police for injury she sustained during a protest march. Paragraph 12 of that matter’s judgement reads: “The next witness for the defence was Sgt. Thabo Kunene, who has since retired from the police service having been in service for thirty two years.” A fortnight ago, this publication called Superintendent Phindile Vilakati, the Chief Police Information and Communications Officer, enquiring about Kunene as part of an investigation after information had been obtained that he was a person of interest.

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Vilakati could only confirm that Kunene had left the force but not that the police were interested in him. “Kunene left the police service after he retired on medical grounds,” she said.
Impeccable sources disclosed that Kunene was now living in South Africa’s Mpumalanga Province. Whether by coincidence another slain most wanted suspect, Ishmael Mshengu Mabuza (52), who was also known as ‘Messiah’, had a history with Kunene. Mabuza was shot dead on January 8, 2023 at Hlutse near Siphofaneni together with a 40-year- old accomplice, while another companion managed to flee but was also shot dead the following day at Mahlabatsini in Matsapha. According to the sources, there were suspicions that Mabuza had dealings with the Solidarity Forces, and when he was killed the police recovered two firearms (an AK47 assault rifle loaded with 12 live rounds and a 9mm pistol with eight live rounds) from him and his accomplice. Documented history shows that former cop Kunene was once responsible for arresting Mabuza for his involvement in the Vukuzenzele Supermarket robbery in Siteki, where an amount of E2 million was stolen. Mabuza was initially charged for the crimes with seven others, but eventually only four were found to have a case to answer. According to court documents, Kunene was the one who testified that Mabuza led him and other officers to his (Mabuza’s) parental homestead at Nkungwini, where they found ammunition hidden in the ground.

ammunition

These included a 9mm pistol CZ75 without a serial number; 10 live rounds of ammunition found in its magazine; a 9mm star pistol without a serial number; and four live rounds of ammunition found in its magazine. Mabuza, as determined by the High Court, did not have any licence or permit for any of these items. Besides the Vukuzenzele robbery, it was found that some of these items were used to commit robberies at Mankayane Filling Station, Orion Sun in Ngwenya, Lobamba Filling Station and Texray in Matsapha. Principal Judge Qinisile Mabuza, who presided over these robberies, sentenced him to a collective 19 years in prison but these were to run concurrently and also backdated to the date of arrest, which was six years back. This meant that he became a free man because the highest of the sentences was six years.