By Zweli Martin Dlamini

The conduct of Assistant Superintendent Nuro Ntibane who assaulted the Secretary General of the Swaziland National Association of Teachers(SNAT) Lot Vilakati should be an eye opener, this country will soon be dominated by fools if the wise and intelligent keep quiet.

After conducting close analysis of the videos where Ntibane was assaulting the SNAT Secretary General, I realized that, Lot Vilakati had an opportunity to grab and squeeze the senior cop’s testicles and, that would have been the most demeaning scenario, not even a court sentence or fine would have restored the rogue and stupid Mbabane Deputy Station Commander’s dignity.

Imagine you are a Deputy Station Commander and, instead of sending junior police officers to engage the unionists, you want to be at the forefront so that you could be seen by Labadzala that, you are brave and capable of dragging SNAT leaders out of Government Offices.

Nuro Ntibane is so lucky,if it was some of us who always identify an opportunity to do the worse to a person who is persecuting us, the Assistant Station Commander would be now struggling to have sex with damaged testicles and that would have destroyed him for the rest of his life, as women “would be discussing him in hushed tones that he can’t have sex”.

In my line of duty as a journalist, I once received a call from a victim of police brutality working in the public transport industry who said; “Ngishaywe ngemaphoyisa kodvwa ngibalayile, leli lebelingishaya kakhulu ngilibambile ngagicika nalo phansi ngentela nje kutsi lilimale kancane nalo kutohlangana letingati litfole le-HIV ngoba mine ngi-positive”.

I then traced the police officer’s HIV status in the Ministry of Health Government systems and discovered that the cop was HIV negative but six(6) months later, when I asked my source to check again, he was positive.

This means an uneducated public transport worker who was being assaulted by the police during the political unrest, developed an equally evil heart in the midst of the pain and intentionally infected a police officer with HIV, the victim of the police brutality was proud to have done that.

The questions is; can we blame the public transport worker?.

Even today the police officer is not aware how he was infected with HIV, its only me and my source and because I was warned not to disclose this, I kept quiet because the police might go back and assault or even kill the young man.

I almost condemned the public transport worker but quickly remembered that, what if it was the police officer who was HIV positive?.

How many suspects got infected in the midst of assaults by the cops?.

Some police officers are so stupid such that, when assaulting emaSwati they “fail to understand that, some citizens are actually tired and they can do anything that could cause pain to them as well”, this is very unfortunate because in the absence of a justice system that holds cops accountable, the police are creating a society of “iso-ngeso”.

Vilakati was in a better position to defend himself from this rogue and stupid senior cop with his bare hands and achieve convincing results but, he opted for peace over violence and allowed fools to undermine his dignity.

But my greatest worry is that; if we allow these fools to dominate this country like ‘uMgundzatjani’, we might soon be under siege.

Some of the fools in the police service know nothing about human rights or the rule of law, the only thing that can stop them is a program that seeks to deal with them in their personal capacity and this, does not need expensive resources but creative ways.

Rogue police officers like Nuro Ntibane know nothing about the law, all that is flashing in their stupid heads is to be seen persecuting political activists, independent journalists and unionists to be recognized by the appointing authority.

As victims, we must mitigate the culture of impunity by creating some risks so that, police officers could know that, if they assault or kill another citizen, something will happen to them as well.

Citizens can also help us isolate these rouge police officers like Nuro Ntibane, cops are human beings, they need bank loans, health care and other services provided by ordinary citizens, it’s time we use what we have to sanction, correct and help them become better society members instead of venting frustration on social media.

Once a police officer becomes famous for persecuting emaSwati, that officer will get a promotion but,the society must isolate the rogue cop.

Police officers visit hospitals and be at the mercy of health workers some who are our sources, if everyone could abuse power like they are doing, chaos could erupt.

Furthermore, police officers approach banks for loans and this means, they need other citizens to survive, a senior cop once told me that Assistant Commissioner Clement Sihlongonyane was complaining that, some women were refusing to have sex with him during the recent political unrest saying; “mosi wena utsi Zwemart awulungi uyabulalana”.

Nuro Ntibane has harassed Lot Vilakati, a teacher who is heading the biggest union in this country, he showed a middle figure to parents, teachers, students and the entire Nation. 

Therefore, if we allow one fool to hold us hostage with impunity, that would mean the problem is not the fool but us because, we have all the means to correct or rehabilitate such fools and help them become better members of our society.