National Commissioner William Dlamini should be held accountable for ordering junior police officers to report for duty as essential workers without providing them with Personal Protective Clothing (PPEs) thus exposing them to COVID-19.
Now, with reports emerging that more police officers are testing positive to COVID-19, the National Commissioner should give a clear explanation why he undermined State security should a large number of officers die in the country.
It’s true that some of us are not happy with the abuse, harassment and torture we are subjected to at the hands of the police but we need to understand that our enemy is not the entire organization, some junior officers are also victims of these lunatics with the Executive Command.
When this COVID-19 started, I published a comment warning superiors within the army and the police to avoid exposing officers to COVID-19 by giving them guns to fight a virus that needs PPEs and a proper health care system, it seems my advice fell on deaf ears.
But it is now evident that the lives of these officers were deliberately put at risk by William, this is a serious matter that undermines State Security.
It worth mentioning that as a country, we need police officers and we cannot paint all of them with the same brush of brutally assaulting and killing citizens like Sam Mthembu who killed Sipho Jele and tortured journalists including our families.
This shows that while some officers are brutal, we have those who understand and value human life, as a result we have an obligation to be their voice in these difficult times where they are exposed to COVID-19 by William.
The National Commissioner must stop treating these officers like his dogs, even a dog is provided food by the owner, why did William exposed these officers to COVID-19 knowing very well that we don’t have a proper health system in this country?
Let me state catergotically that our complains regarding the brutality of the police does not mean we hate them, but we don’t like the conduct of those who doesn’t value human life by shooting and torturing citizens.
We are all citizens of this country,as journalists, there are times when we need services of police officers, again, the media plays a crucial role to be voice of victims like these officers who tested positive to COVID-19.
As the situation stands, more officers are testing positive within the various police stations and the blame should be shouldered by William, he must give them proper treatment and further compensate their families in the event they die.
We will be following the matter of these officers closely to see if they are taken care-off. The National Commissioner should know that these are human beings and as such, they deserve to be treated with human dignity. The fact that they took an oath does no mean they should be deliberately killed by their Commissioner by exposing them to COVID-19. What kind of a leader who gamble with the lives of the troops he lead? It seems the desire to fight and torture independent journalists disturbed the mind of this old man. With this huge blunder, we can’t even imagine a whole country without police officers, we wish them a speedy recovery.
Police officers