By Zweli Martin Dlamini

MBABANE:Prince Sicalo,the Principal Secretary(PS) in the Ministry of Defense and State Security allegedly wants to procure a cellphone hacking system that will report to Nokwane Army Headquarters.

It has been disclosed that,the Prince wants the system to be programmed to report all cellphone conversations mentioning the name of his father King Mswati and this, will then enable the Intelligence Unit to follow-up if the conversations were not about plotting to topple the Monarch.

Prince Sicalo,the Defense PS is King Mswati’s first born son, he was trained in Libya by the late President Muammar Gaddafi’s military.

But the moves by the Prince has caused tension within the corridors of power particularly, within the Police Intelligence Unit.

“This system if the Prince will eventually procure it, will divide even the Tinkhundla system as some of us, are very close to the King but vele sihle siyikhuluma kabi iNkhosi latincingweni hhayi ngoba siyenyanya but it’s fair criticism nakukhona layingenti kahle khona.Manje Sicalo nyalo ufuna system letawu-reporter nanatsi. Angibekise nje; loku sikhuluma nasingafaka ligama lelitsi Mswati, then the system will report.He wants to buy the system from Russia or Israel. But this system that the Prince wants to procure will target ground calls and be programmed, inkinga kutsi bantfu abasakhulumi kakhulu ngema-ground calls.Wakhuluma nje watsi Mswati lacingweni yena ufuna kwati konkhe loko”, said a senior police officer within the Police Intelligence Unit.

Efforts to reach the Defense Principal Secretary for a comment proved unsuccessful at the time of compiling this report.

On another note, the State Intelligence Unit within the Ministry of Defense and Security has been relying on communication sourced from MTN Eswatini and Eswatini Mobile.

The MTN and Eswatini Mobile systems also enable the tracing of individuals as the ‘ariels’ reflects the network area of the targeted user.

But with communication now on Whatsap,Signal and other online platforms, the Intelligence Unit is allegedly struggling to trace communication as most cellphone users who might be of interest to the Intelligence Unit hardly use ground calls.

As a result, even law enforcement officers are forced to “literally grab the cellphone belonging to a person of interest to go through Whatsap communication and gain access” to other online platforms.

The police recently grabbed a cellphone belonging to Sergeant Dumsile Khumalo, the Secretary General of the Royal Eswatini Police Staff Association(REPOSA) in an effort to investigate if the ongoing calls for a salary increment by junior cops, are not influenced or linked to political elements.