By Zweli Martin Dlamini

MBABANE:Army Commander Lieutenant General Moses Mashikilisane Fakudze allegedly used fraudulent means to change his date of birth to avoid retirement, an independent and high level investigation conducted by this Swaziland News reveals.

Documents obtained by this investigative journalist from the Ministry of Home Affairs Immigration Systems suggest that, the Army Commander was born on the 12th November 1960 and as a result, was supposed to retire on the 12th November 2020. 

But the documents further suggest that, under his identity document number 6011126100016, the Army Commander obtained three(3) passports in the past fifteen(15) years using the above mentioned ID reflecting that he was born on the 12th November 1960.

The investigation subsequently uncovered that, around 2020 and a few months before reaching his retirement age, the Army Commander colluded with alleged corrupt officials within the Ministry of Home Affairs to fraudulently change his date of birth to avoid the retirement.

As a result, his current or new alleged fraudulent ID number is 6311126100275 and is reflecting a new date of birth-12th November 1963, the Army Commander is the latest top official exposed by this publication after Public Service Ministry Principal Secretary Sipho Tsabedze who was fired by the Civil Service Commission(CSC) for forging his date of birth to avoid retirement.

This means the Head of the Army added three(3) more years and is now approximately sixty-five(65) years, he allegedly did this before colluding with the late Army Chief Officer Prince Sihlangusemphi to oust the then Army Commander Jeffery Shabalala.

Reached for comments by this Swaziland News, Army Spokesperson Lieutenant Tengetile Khumalo referred comments to the Army Commander saying she was not aware of his personal documents.

“Unfortunately the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force(UEDF) Public Affairs Office is not privy to the Defence Force personal business”, said the Army Spokesperson.

The Army Commander has been consistently exposed by this publication for abusing power, engaging in fraud and corruption within the Umbutfo Eswatini Defense Force, he was previously accused of owning over two hundred(200) cattle being proceeds of bribes allegedly paid by members of the public seeking jobs in the Army and officers who were subsequently promoted.

But apart from that, the Army Commander allegedly looted about R20million monies belonging to soldiers and subsequently closed a Burial Fund that was assisting soldiers with “imali yekulila” amounting to twelve thousand Rands(R12,000.00) when visiting families to mourn the death of another soldier. 

The Commander Fakudze has been receiving five thousand Rands(R5,000.00) per-week as “litiya la-Commander” from Hlalawati, a Saving and Cooperative Fund belonging to soldiers, the looted monies since Fakudze took over as the Army Commander, amount to about R1million.