DVUDVUSINI: “Ngicela ningangibulali”,(please don’t kill me).
These were direct words of a soldier identified as Sicelo Jele who was part of the team that tortured Students Union President Colani Maseko on Tuesday morning.
The soldier was attacked by heavily armed ground forces at his home in Mankayane,Dvudvusini on Wednesday evening, he ran away naked living his children and wife behind.
According to information in our possession that cannot be shared publicly to protect our sources within the ground forces, after the soldier ran away, the members of the ground forces started the process of spraying the house with bombing chemicals and subsequently set it alight.
In the middle of the night,the soldier then shouted for help from other community members,a few meters away from his home and that was when the members of the ground forces fired gun shots in the air and disappeared.
Superintendent Phindile Vilakati, the Police Spokesperson had not responded at the time of compiling this report.
Reached for comments,Tracy Gama,the wife to the soldier said when the armed ground forces arrived, they ordered her husband to shoot them as he was a trained soldier.
“Bafike batsi sidubule phela, angitsi wena uyadubula, wabaleka Babe. Bashise imoto yakhe iGolf, lendlu ayikashi kakhulu ngoba iseyinsha bekute tintfo letinyenti(meaning: When they arrived,they ordered my husband to shoot them as he was a soldier who knows how to shoot. My husband ran away and they burnt his car, a Golf.The house was not entirely burnt as it was new with a few things inside”,said the wife.
The burning of the soldier’s home who allegedly tortured Students President Colani Maseko was confirmed by a very senior member of the Executive Command within the Swaziland International Solidarity Forces(SISF) on Wednesday evening.
Reached for comments,Lucky Lukhele, the Spokesperson of the Swaziland Solidarity Network(SSN) said it was embarrassing that a highly trained soldier could run away and leave his children and wife behind during an attack.
“While it is embarrassing that a a highly trained soldier could run away and leave children and wife behind, this should be a lesson to other members of the security forces that Mswati doesn’t care about them. Once the people within the communities start targeting them, they would be on their own.These soldiers must start now to stand with the people and stop what they are doing,” said the Spokesperson of the Swaziland Solidarity Network.
A Golf allegedly belonging to a soldier burnt.