MBABANE: Women rights organizations have called for an investigation after allegations emerged suggesting that King Mswati’s security officers are allegedly raping women in the midst of the political unrest.
This was revealed by a member of the Royal Swaziland Police Service(RSPS) who asked this publication to investigate and warn the Nation that women who were found on the streets after the curfew hours were being raped and dumped by security officers.
“This is very disturbing. As you know I’m working under the royal guard and we are not patrolling the streets. But a colleague here received a call from a police officer, fortunately, I was next to him listening, he was inviting him to be part of the officers patrolling at night so he can get free sex by raping women, I was shocked. Can you please report about this because once they find these women on the streets, they abduct them into a secluded place, rape and dump them. The victim can’t even report to the police because currently there is a ‘silent’ chaos in the country and these things are hidden”, he said.
Questions were forwarded to Police Spokesperson Phindile Vilakati, however, she declined to comment.
Reached for comments, Nonhlanhla Dlamini, the Executive Director of the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse(SWAGAA) said she believed the people who were raped were afraid to report such cases because they felt they were on the wrong side of the law for breaking the curfew.
“This can’t be disputed because it normally happens even in other countries where there are political unrests with soldiers deployed on the streets. I will check our statistics if we have such cases, you may find that people are afraid to report because they feel that they were on the wrong side of the law for breaking the curfew”, said the Executive Director.
Siboniso Mkhabela, a resident of Lomahasha told this publication that they saw soldiers who were patrolling the area entering homesteads to sleep with females.
“Here at Lomahasha, we sometimes see soldiers entering women’s houses and sleep over for the night and you may never know if it’s consensual or not”, he said.
Speaking to this Swaziland News, Colani Hlatswayo, the One Billion Rising Africa Coordinator condemned the conduct of the security officers.
“It is so sad that the people that are supposed to be protecting women and implementing the legislation aimed at protecting women , who are custodians of the law are the very people who abuse or violate women. Thank you to the Swaziland News for gathering that information and evidence since we wouldn’t be able to know about such violations by the police”, she said.
The Coordinator then called for an investigation into the rape allegations leveled against the security officers.
Fears King Mswati’s security officers are raping women.