DPM VISITS UNREST SECURITY OFFICERS’ ORPHANS

MBABANE - The Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Thulisile Dladla has embarked on an exercise to visit all the orphaned children created during the unrest.

These visits are limited to orphaned children whose parents or guardians were members of the security forces and were killed during the political unrest by people purporting to be members of the solidarity forces. These visits aim to ensure that the children, who were left behind by the soldiers, police officers as well as officers from His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) who were killed between 2021 and 2022 during the unrest had access to basic needs.

Visited

The DPM said to date, she had visited two families of officers from HMCS. Last Friday, Dladla visited Mbongeni Mthayi Dlamini’s family who was killed on November 4, 2022. Dlamini is one of HMCS’s officers who was kidnapped, tortured, forced to record a video and killed by the solidarity forces. Dlamini left behind six children, the oldest being six years old.

“I am fully embarking on that exercise because as an office, we need to ensure that the officers’ children have all the national documents and are in school. During the visits, I am also examining their socio-economic status and who is looking after them,” said the DPM. Another family that was visited was that of Bheki Mtsefwa of Kabhudla who was kidnapped, assaulted and shot. He was stationed at Sidwashini Correctional Services Facility.

The DPM said she would be visiting more families. She said they would start by visiting the families of HMCS officers and the rest would follow.
She said by next week, she would be done with the exercise and would ensure that all the children were receiving necessities. Last year, government invited the families of the 10 officers from Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS), HMCS and Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF), and engaged them on how they could be assisted after the death of their loved ones. The families were asked to choose a family member who would replace the deceased loved one in each of the security forces in the country.

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