By Zweli Martin Dlamini

It was a coincidence that just when I was about to write an article criticising the National Commissioner of Police Vusi Manoma Masango, regarding the delay in arresting the alleged cyber criminals defrauding the public their mobile monies, a press conference was held announcing the arrest of the alleged criminals.

It is indeed, a great pleasure to change the topic and headline and express appreciation to the National Commissioner in this regard, of course without disregarding the principles of presumption of innocence until proven guilty, these alleged criminals defrauded even senior citizens their elderly grants and we thank the law enforcement agency for these arrests.

I remember some years ago, my grandmother Inkhosikati LaMndzebele, she would appreciate even a mere twenty Rands(R20.00) from me and after receiving it, she would say “let’s pray my son” and thank God for this money.

Even if the money was considered little in my pocket, she would appreciate it “ayikhungele elucotfweni”.

Now we send money to our parents and grandparents through eWallet, bank accounts with the most popular and reliable transactional method being Mobile Money with service providers being MTN Eswatini, Instacash and Eswatini Mobile.

We are therefore, concerned if our elderly parents,perhaps due to their limited understanding of technology, are targeted by young people who are lazy to work and provide for themselves, police must arrest all of them.

Criminals have realized that, money is no longer kept under the pillows, wardrobes in the houses but, on Mobile Money among other saving financial facilities, police must prioritize these cyber crimes just like house breaking and armed robberies.

Instead of committing armed robberies and house breaking, these alleged criminals are targeting cellphones, utilizing technology to defraud people.

Therefore, we need well-trained police officers on cyber crime, officers with the basic understanding of criminal activities allegedly committed through the use of technology.

The National Commissioner acted in the public interest this time, these alleged criminals were walking free and we were asking ourselves “what was preventing the police from arresting them because cellphone numbers and Mobile Money transfers are regulated and registered under people’s names”.

It cannot be difficult to trace a person who defrauded a complainant money through Mobile Money(MOMO) because the alleged fraudster would be required to even produce an Identification Number(ID) card when withdrawing the money.

I hardly praise public figures for doing their job because that’s what they “are being paid for” but, this time let me say thank National Commissioner, this cyber crime was a headache to the public.