MBABANE: Highly classified State documents sourced from the Royal Eswatini Police Service(REPS) reveal a list of police officers who allegedly killed innocent civilians during the recent political unrest.
The documents that include “Occurrence Books” and intelligence reports reveal even force numbers of the officers who reported for duty between 29-30 June 2021 and the nature of guns they used when shooting the unarmed civilians.
It has been disclosed through the documents that on or around 29th June 2021 at around 10pm, Thubalethu Mbuyazwe Ngwenya was shot once at the back and was subsequently certified dead upon arrival at Mankayane Government hospital.
“4340 SGT B Ndlangamandla reported that on 29.06.21 at about 2200hrs one Thubalethu Mbuyazwe Ngwenya of Musi area was shot once on the back and was certified dead on arrival at Mankayane Government Hospital”, read the State documents in part.
The names of the officers who allegedly killed the citizens cannot be revealed for now pending further investigations into their identities including places of residence.
On or around 29th June 2021, King Mswati’s government switched-off the internet and subsequently unleashed the police and the army to kill dozens of civilians who were protesting in various parts of the country demanding democratic reforms.
The Human Rights Commission later released a preliminary investigation report suggesting that forty-six(46) people were killed during the June 2021 political unrest.
But political parties and the civil society alleged that they were in possession of evidence suggesting that over one hundred(100) citizens were killed with over seventy(70) already identified.
Reached for comments regarding the latest discovery of fresh evidence, Human Rights Lawyer Sibusiso Nhlabatsi said there was a need for an independent investigation to gather more evidence to ascertain what really happened during the June 2021 political unrest.
“If we were in a proper country, an inquiry was going to be established to investigate the death of the civilians. You will note that the Human Rights Commission gave us a base line regarding the alleged killing of civilians and we understand that they released a report based on their limited investigations.So, for us to know what really happened, we need an independently appointed Commission because we cannot rely on police reports as we know their dishonest conduct”, said the Human Rights Lawyer.
On or around 13th November 2021, Sabelo Masuku, the Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission told the Mail and Guardian that the findings of their report were merely a preliminary verification to establish facts on what happened and was not necessarily a full report.
“We did a preliminary verification to establish if indeed people were shot or not and the findings suggest that people were shot. We wanted to have verified data on the ground after so many different claims on who was arrested, injured, and died.” said the Human Rights Commissioner when speaking to the Mail and Guardian.
Now, an independent investigation by this Swaziland News and the subsequent discovery of fresh documentary evidence linking Mswati and his security officers to the alleged crimes against humanity suggests that more citizens were killed and the actual number was hidden by the authorities.
Questions were sent to William Tsintsibala Dlamini, Dlamini, the National Commissioner of Police, however, he had not responded at the time of compiling this report.
Insiders revealed that some of the police officers who shot and killed civilians were later recommended for further training at the Ngonini Operational Support Services Unit(OSSU)while soldiers were transported to Mbuluzi for intensive training.
Reached for comments, Lucky Lukhele, the Spokesperson of the Swaziland Solidarity Network(SSN) said the new information proved that Mswati was a murderer and that he cannot sit in a round table and dialogue with political leaders regarding the future of the country.
“We are not surprised with the emergence of this new information, it proves that Mswati is a murderer and that he cannot sit in a round table and dialogue with political leaders to discuss the future of the country”, said the Swaziland Solidarity Network Spokesperson.
Part of the evidence sourced from the State documents.