By Zweli Martin Dlamini

MBABANE: David Cruiser Ngcamphalala, the Minister of Tinkhundla was leading a team of police officers from the Operational Support Services Unit(OSSU) that brutalized pro-democracy protestors in Manzin on the 12th April 2011.

Ngcamphalala, a former police officer and Mafutseni Station Commander whose home was petrol bombed on Tuesday morning was assigned by the then Police Commissioner Isaac Magagula to attack hundreds of young people who were protesting against the April 12, 1973 Decree that banned political parties from contesting elections.

After brutalizing and dispersing  the protestors, Ngcamphalala, together with a battalion of police officers marched in the streets of Manzini singing songs of victory and making sure no one was protesting.

In eSwatini, citizens are assaulted, tortured, arrested and killed merely for protesting.

Ngcamphalala was later elected a Member of Parliament(MP) for Sigwe Constituency in 2013 and was subsequently rewarded by King Mswati with a position as Minister of the Youth he previously brutalized.

Ngcamphalala later strengthened ties with royalty and was re-elected as Sigwe MP after donating blankets among others to the elderly of Sigwe, he then advised MPs to ignore the youth, saying young people do not vote hence they don’t decide the outcomes of elections.

“Honourable Members of Parliament, don’t bother yourself about the youth that only barks on social media, these people don't decide the outcomes of elections because they don’t even vote”, said the Minister.

The government subsequently unleashed soldiers and the police to shoot and kill dozens of civilians merely for demanding democratic reforms on 29th  June 2021, a preliminary report by the Human Rights Commission suggests that forty-six(46) people were killed.

But leaders of political parties and the civil society alleged that they have evidence suggesting that more one hundred(100) people were killed with over seventy already identified.

But in the early morning hours on Tuesday morning, Ngcamphalala had his home petrol bombed, however, at this juncture, no evidence has been obtained linking the petrol bombing to his previous attacks on the youth both as a police officer and an MP.

Ngcamphalala was the first MP or Minister who publicly stated that government must just ignore the youth, young people in eSwatini struggles with scholarships and jobs among others.

But the Tinkhundla Minister allegedly blamed the President of the newly formed Swaziland Liberation Movement(SWALIMO) Mduduzi Magawugawu Simelane after the petrol bombing of his home.

The SWALIMO President was quoted by the Times Sunday urging the Nation to repeat the incidents of 29th June 2021.

Addressing the media after the petrol bombing, Minister Ngcamphalala said those who made statements calling for a repeat of the June 29 incidents incited people to burn his home.

“We saw in the newspapers where it was stated that the incidents of June 29 should be repeated and indeed that June 29 has been repeated here. We saw the burning of shops, roads and everything”, said the Minister.

Worth-noting is that on the 29th June 2021, Mswati and his Cabinet including Minister Ngcamphalala allegedly unleashed soldiers and the police to shoot and kill dozens of protesting civilians.

When addressing the media, the Minister did not mention anything about the killing of civilians when he narrated what happened on the 29th June 2021.

Reached for comments, SWALIMO President Mduduzi Magawugawu Simelane said he did saw the video clip by the Minister, however, he further mentioned that as per swazi culture, he could not take offense to sentiments made by a grieving person. 

“For me is to pass my words of comfort to his loss.I must but repeat that I’m serious when I say that the mass democratic movement must go full scale on what we did from 26th to 29 with regards to mass demonstrations country-wide to ground the country until they agree to meaningful political dialogue not the games they are playing, fooling the nation and the international community. We only need strategies on how to prevent the regime from killing our people as they did.Our people know I’m an advocate for peaceful demonstrations”, he said.