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PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS DON’T INVADE PEOPLE’S PRIVACY - HUNTER SHONGWE

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MBABANE – A war of words has erupted between private investigation companies over the highly sensitive subject of invasion of privacy.


Director of Huntsip Private Investigations Hunter Shongwe, strongly condemned the invasion of someone’s privacy without lawful justification, and accused Zwemart Private Investigators of tarnishing the image of the profession.


Shongwe charged that this was not only a gross violation of a right to privacy and dignity, but extremely unethical and unprofessional. He was of the view that it could not be justified because the party on whose instruction they were working had no direct interest in both the affected parties’ love lives.


Without mentioning names, Shongwe was commenting on news reports on Thursday in which Zwemart investigators allegedly broke into the house where Assistant Master of the High Court Cebile Ngwenya and Matsanjeni North MP Phila Buthelezi were engaged in an intimate act.
Zwemart Investigators alleged to the Times daily that they were hired by a Cabinet minister who instructed them to track down evidence about a possible connection the couple may have.


On the strength of these instructions, Zwemart last week gained entry into a government house occupied by Ngwenya by allegedly breaking a window, catching the couple in bed.
Ngwenya has since opened a case against the Zwemart team of investigators for invasion of privacy. They have been slapped with a crimen injuria charge. Crimen Injuria can be defined as unlawfully, intentionally and seriously impairing the dignity of another.


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“For one, the person who hired the said company had a personal problem against the two,” said Shongwe. “He had no clear right or direct interest to give out the instruction. In a case where infidelity or adultery was the grounds for following a client’s instruction, the client must have a right to justify the extent to which limits ought to be drawn when carrying that investigation.”


“There is no need to break the law to get such evidence, and where an invasion of privacy can be justified in such manner as these investigators did, the instruction should have been from either spouse of the busted two. Even then, such spouse must have been in a married in civil Rites.”
Shongwe added: “You cannot just take instructions from anybody without a direct interest to such an extent that you even break in. That is unethical.”


With 15 years of experience as a private investigator, he said that he was convinced that evidence gathered by unlawful means is inadmissible in court.
“However, when you have the backing of one of the spouses in a civil Rites marriage, it can be argued that the spouse had a legal right to grant such a break-in based on those issued instructions.


“To say a minister had paid and issued instruction to follow the two such as the case has been reported, I believe breaking in is totally unjustified and is criminal.”


Shongwe hastened to remind fellow PIs that every human being has a guaranteed right to privacy and dignity. “I am speaking for a profession I have worked so hard to legitimise in the kingdom and, therefore, will never sit back and allow it to be tarnished.”

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