By Zweli Martin Dlamini

When police officers attempted to stop fire fighters from delivering a petition in Parliament amid the ongoing fire crisis, of course, under the leadership of Chief Fire Officer(CFO) Luke Lushaba, I remembered these propagated sentiments from the Tinkhundla undemocratic regime; kute labafuna tingcucuko eSwatini, lidlandzana nje”.

The truth is;whenever emaSwati organize themselves to deliver petitions, State police officers will not disperse them,the law enforcement agency will only react once emaSwati gather in large crowds expressing a different view,guns will be used.

“We are here in Parliament editor as fire-fighters to deliver a petition.The police are blocking us saying we rather elect three(3) people who will deliver the petition on our behalf behalf”, said one of the senior fire officers who was communicating with me during the petition delivery on Friday.

This strategy of preventing emaSwati from delivering petitions or expressing themselves as a group or large crowds, is meant to communicate a message suggesting that, only a few are aggrieved with the current ruling regime.

Even if emaSwati can organize themselves in a community to deliver a petition to their Inkhundla, police will not attack them if they are three(3) or five(5), this regime doesn’t want to see a large crowd and once that petition delivery protest gains momentum, you will see soldiers and the police armed with guns.

But during uMhlanga, Incwala or eMaganu, emaSwati are allowed to gather in large crowds so that the oppressor King Mswati, could be seen as a person with a huge following.

In all this, the provisions of the Public Order Act are manipulated and made to supersede the Constitution that promotes freedom of association.

I therefore agree with those who share the views suggesting that, the Constitution is a disguised version of the 1973 Decree,emaSwati are not allowed to organise freely in this country.

But the people must know that, they will only free themselves from oppression, even the police that attempted to stop the fire fighters from delivering the petition as an organized group, will learn once wild fires destroy their homes.

This country has been destroyed, police are facing shortage of working equipment,no working equipment for fire fighters, no drugs in public hospitals, no scholarships, no maintenance of roads in the rural areas and, more emaSwati are languishing in poverty.

Stopping fire fighters from raising awareness with regards to the crisis within that Department, might soon backfire, even the police will remember the Parliament petition delivery by these concerned civil servants.

State and private infrastructure worth billions have been destroyed by fire but, the Tinkhundla regime opted to neutralize the delivery of a petition by fire fighters seeking to raise awareness with regards to the leadership crisis in that Department just to protect political interests.