Ǯm no– reƒ†› –o commen– - †e’u–›
MBABANE – “I’m not ready to comment yet,” says the deputy national commissioner of (NATCOM) Police.
Lydia Dlamini, when visited at her homestead in one of the townships on the outskirts of Manzini, informed this publication’s reporters that she was not yet ready to comment on the people who were stopped while trespassing at her homestead. Dlamini communicated this message through a police officer who was found at her compound. This publication had visited Dlamini’s home to establish what happened during the shooting which has caused panic among some of the residents of the township. It is worth noting that while at the compound, some police officers from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), walked into the homestead to report their presence in the area and to allay any fright that could have ensued, as their unmarked vehicle would be around doing patrol rounds around the area.
The officers’ vehicle was suitable for their mission as it was not marked as a police vehicle nor did it have blue lights affixed to its rooftop, thus patrolling without being noticed that they were law enforcers.
The ‘intrusion’at the homestead of the deputy NATCOM happened against the backdrop of an impasse between the top brass of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) and low ranking officers.
The stand-off emanates from an eight-year wait for the implementation of Phase II of the salary restructuring exercise in law enforcement agencies. This bottleneck saw the lowly ranked officers from both the His Majesties Correctional Services (HMCS) and REPS petitioning the office of the Prime Minister (PM), Cleopas Sipho Dlamini, which did not augur well with the National Commissioner (NATCOM) of Police William Tsitsibala Dlamini and the commissioner general (COMGEN) of His Majesty’s Correctional Services (HMCS) Phindile Dlamini. Both leaders of the organisations released press statements rebuking the act and re-emphasising that both law enforcement agencies were disciplined organisations, which did not march to raise concerns but used internal structures.