MBABANE:Qhawe Bhembe,the soldier who was killed at Logoba in a fight with other soldiers about two(2)weeks ago, was based at Mdzimba Army Barracks where members of the Army Intelligence Unit reside.
The Army Barracks housing the dangerous State agents is situated ka-Kosi forest, about five hundred(500)metres away from eTjeni Bus Stop at LaMgabhi eTiyeni on top of the Mdzimba Mountains.
Etjeni Bus Stop was named after the late King Sobhuza who was welcomed by Chief Mabhedla Hlophe, visited the area greeting residents before resting on top of a small rock on a t-junction that connects the Army Barracks from the LaMgabhi-Vusweni road.
King Sobhuza then introduced the Mdzimba Army Barracks that is now housing some of the State agents killing civilians.
But this is not to suggest that all the soldiers based at Mdzimba Army Barracks are involved in the killing of innocent civilians as others once helped this journalist to skip the country amid persecution by the police.
An investigation conducted by this Swaziland News uncovered that, Bhembe was part of a newly established squad known as the “Special Force” that is responsible for killing political activists and other human rights defenders in the country, the unit is allegedly working with State mercenaries.
As a result,like other undercover soldiers,Bhembe did not shave his face and based on his looks, it was extremely difficult to even identify him as a soldier, his previous pictures shortly after he passed-out at Mbuluzi where he was looking like a soldier were far different from the current pictures.
When this journalist contacted other soldiers at Mdzimba Barracks in the midst of this investigation regarding the identity of the soldier, one of the soldiers first said; “I will check for you, most of these soldiers are not easily identified because the unit is new and they disguise”.
The soldier then came back with the information after a week saying
“It’s true, there was a funeral last weekend at Ngculwini and other soldiers said they were there for the burial of Bhembe, a soldier who was killed at Logoba. So if you say he is Qhawe Bhembe,I’m sure he is the one.I am sorry to come back to you late with the information,this unit is new so these soldiers are undercover”.
The identity of the deceased soldier was first revealed to this journalist by another soldier who is also an alleged member of the “Special Force”.
When asked to describe the character of members of the Army Special Force, the soldier said it’s not easy to identify them as sometimes disguise as Eswatini Electricity Company technician, and would to your homestead pretending to be investigating a fault.
The soldier said some are known in their communities like unemployed individuals and they dress like poor people when going to drinking spots to conduct intelligence and/or surveillance.
“What happened at Logoba is that a fight erupted between two(2)individuals and when one businsssman tried to intervene,he was shot as well. Qhawe was not aware that,the other person he was fighting is a soldier and the other was also not aware that Qhawe is a soldier.So both of them were armed with pistols,they started shooting each other and it was discovered that, these are actually soldiers. I will send you Qhawe’s picture and you can verify from your other sources at Mdzimba Barracks”, said the soldier.
It was after receiving such information that,this journalist started to investigate and discovered that indeed,Qhawe Bhembe was part of the Army Special Force.
Lieutenant Tengetile Khumalo, the Army Spokesperson had not responded at the time of compiling this report.
On another note, one of the soldiers alleged that the “Special Force Unit” where Qhawe Bhembe was deployed have spies within the pro-democracy movement however, the soldier said,the role of the unit is to eliminate individuals identified as enemies of the State.
Reached for comments on Saturday, Mbongseni ‘Muti’ Tfwala, a Ngculwini kombi driver confirmed knowledge of the soldier.
“We know the soldier, he was buried last week at Ngculwini”, he said.
When asked to confirm the disguised picture of the soldier, Tfwala confirmed that it’s Qhawe Bhembe.
“Yes that is Qhawe Bhembe”, said the Ngculwini kombi driver.
The late Qhawe Bhembe.