13 emaSwati killed in SA over past 7 months
MBABANE - At least 13 emaSwati lost their lives in a brutal way in the neighbouring country, South Africa (SA), in the past seven months.
This is according to the latest South African Police Services (SAPS) report. The SAPS Spokesperson, Captain Kevin Masondo, shared the report.
He said in the last seven months there has been a reported 13 emaSwati who tragically lost their lives in SA. He then mentioned that over 100 emaSwati had been arrested in SA, mainly for being in that country illegally.
He said the arrested emaSwati were either found in illegal possession of dagga while others were arrested for not having valid travel documents.
Masondo said the report was compiled for the purpose of record-keeping and liaising with the foreign affairs ministries in the different countries.
Wrong
“We have quite a number of emaSwati in the country, and some of them are always found on the wrong side of the law. Others died in a brutal manner,” said Masondo.
He further said this kind of exercise helped them have proper records, as some emaSwati were rotting in jail and morgues because their families were not aware of their deaths.
“We are being thorough this year, we are cleaning out the country and compiling these kinds of reports to helps us maintain order in the country,” said Masondo.
The gruesome incidents that saw the 13 emaSwati lose their lives include murder, armed robbery and human trafficking, among others.
During the interview, Masondo made an example of a mother and son who were gunned down in Soweto last year in October.
The duo was said to have been killed by gang members. Soon after that there was a bus that was burnt in Polokwane and three emaSwati lost their lives.
There was also a case of a liSwati man who was found dead in South Africa after he went missing in 2020.
LIST OF INCIDENTS WHERE EMASWATI LOST THEIR LIVES Place Soweto Robbery Cape Town burning bus Durban robbery Soweto missing persons (found dead)
No. of people lost
1 3 4 5
There was also a security guard who was reportedly shot during a robbery in Durban.
The arrest of the emaSwati comes shortly after this publication ran a story on 35 emaSwati who were rounded up by SA police. This was before the
Easter holidays.
This publication further reported that Julius Malema offered to pay for at least six emaSwati who were arrested in South Africa over the weekend.
In a weekend recap on Twitter space, Malema, a politician and activist who is a Member of Parliament and the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), had joined the space to recap on events that took place in SA. It was reported that 30 locals, who were coming into the country for the Easter weekend from South Africa, were detained.
This took place over the Easter holidays where the 30 locals were detained for not having the required travel documents.
Statement
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, through Communications Officer Sikhumbuzo Bhembe, reiterated their previous statement that they were working closely with their SA Embassy to establish the exact number of emaSwati who were in the neighbouring country.
The communications officer said they had no records of the affected, lost emaSwati and that they were working on establishing the number.
“We work closely with the South African Embassy and we have a difficult time finding these people because some of them do not cross the country officially,” he said.
In hindsight, he said they had no formal records of the number of emaSwati outside the country because they either crossed the country without papers or used informal crossing points.