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MALUTHA - As a law enforcer, part of his duties is to protect life and property through the enforcement of the law and regulations, but he is accused of doing directly the opposite.
This sums up complaints which have been brought to the fore against a senior law enforcer, whom they accuse of selling fuel illegally and in containers.
The concerns were raised by concerned residents of Malutha, who are accusing the senior member of one of the State security organs of buying fuel using containers and selling it to members of the public in containers.
Malutha is an area under Ekuthuleni Royal Kraal under Mangcongco Constituency and is located about 26 kilometres from Bhunya in the Manzini Region. It e[tends to the borderline which separates the western part of the Kingdom of Eswatini and South Africa (SA).
According to the residents, the law enforcer is a sergeant and he is regarded as senior because in police stations and posts, for e[ample, law enforcers of his rank could be desk officers or in-charge traffic. They alleged that during the CO9ID-1 era (between 2020 and 2021) the officer purportedly made an arrangement with a market vendor, who sells ‘chicken dust’, just a stone’s throw from Sandlane Border Post, to sell the fuel. They claimed that this started when the law enforcer in question was deployed to work at the border post.
Highlighted
In their concerns, the community members highlighted that they felt their lives and that of other emaSwati, together with their properties, were not safe since events that had been happening in the country since the -une--uly 2021 civil unrest taught them that arson attacks were the main weapon used in the struggle for political reforms.
As such, they said even government noted the trend, resulting in it introducing a ban on the selling of fuel in inkhundla containers.
Again, they said since reports suggested that the perpetrators of violent acts, including arson attacks, had skipped the country to the neighbouring SA, if they decided to carry out the attacks, they could easily get fuel, mainly petrol, to either make petrol bombs or set alight structures of individuals and organisations.
“We have been monitoring the situation closely as we are concerned and discovered that the fuel was sold to anyone (community members and people who were passing by – either going out of the country or coming in) and the buyers were not asked any questions, like why they intended to do with the fuel,” the sources said.
Thereafter, they said since this was a national election year, those with dissenting views might want to attack in order to either disturb the elections or prove to the world that Eswatini was not in a good situation to go to the polls.
In that regard, they said for the safety of their lives and properties, they decided to e[pose the law enforcer’s wrongdoing to the nation and his bosses through the media. They said they could have reported it to the police, but their understanding was that it was easy for law enforcers to break the law and get away with it, as they were believed to protect each other. the free will of the electorate,” argued the minister.
It is her submission that government,
They highlighted that some of them did not want to report the matter to any structure because they needed the service. They said this was because the filling station (Puma) which is about 150 kilometres from the market stall, had been closed for years, as its operators were in dispute with the supplier.
Danger
“So, the law enforcer is providing a service which some of the people desperately need because the nearest filling station is about 26 kilometres from Malutha, yet there are people who are even further away, like those from Dwalile and that is why they are overlooking the fact that the officer is breaking the law and the danger it poses to them as communities and the country at large,” the concerned community members said.
/ast Tuesday, this reporter went to the market stall in question and parked his car opposite the road. The reporter then proceeded to the market stall to ask if he could get fuel.
The reporter found that fuel was available and asked to buy two litres. When he asked the price, he was told that a two-litre of petrol would cost him E54, which meant that a litre is sold at E27, yet the current gazetted price is E20.80 per litre. This figure suggests that per five-litre, they profit E31. Thereafter, the attendant told him that if he did not have a container, they would lend him one and they put the two-litre of petrol in a five-litre container.
He then crossed the road to the car and took the container back to the market stall. After that, the reporter asked the attendant to give him her phone number because there were people who would come from SA and he wanted her to assist them with fuel when they arrived and they e[changed the phone numbers. The reporter said this because he wanted to verify if they also sold the fuel to people coming from SA, as the sources claimed that they vend it to anyone.
Meanwhile, the Communications Officer in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy, Sikelela Khoza, said the ban on selling of fuel in containers was still in effect. He said the ministry, in partnership with the police, required that if one would need to buy fuel using a container, that individual should seek permission from the law enforcement agency before approaching a filling station.
He said this arrangement was made solely because government understood that some people ran small businesses that required fuel, like grass cutting services for e[ample. He said the same applied for motorists who had run-out of fuel along the way.
On the other hand, the Eswatini Energy Regulatory Authority (ESERA), as the regulator was contacted. However, ESERA Consumers and Stakeholders’ Management Teclar Maphosa asked to respond today. She was asked what the law says about storage of fuel and selling it without a licence. She was also asked what penalties could be faced by the illegal seller of fuel, who was selling it in containers. One of the questions was what possible actions would the authority take regarding the matter.
It is worth noting that when government banned the selling of fuel in containers in 2021, it was reported that property that was estimated to be over E500 million had been destroyed during protest actions, which culminated in violence, looting and burning of private and public businesses.