Guns in wrong hands - of cops and robbers

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) you think there is something fishy in the matter of four brand new firearms found near the Luphohlo Dam a few days ago, you are not alone.

Many people actually think so as well.

Some have spent hours speculating about this discovery since the day it was made by that honest fisherman from Siphocosini.

While some say he did well to hand the guns over to the police, others believe he should have kept them. He might need them in future, they say.

Well, from a bird’ eye view, this particular incident goes to confirm the fact that at this particular moment in the history of this nation, there are just too many guns.

Obviously, emaSwati are getting illegal firearms from somewhere.

They probably have a few sources from which they access them because, wow…they are all over the country.

It is quite possible that even the forest near where you live has a cache or two of these pistols and revolvers. There may be a rifle or three as well.

The fisherman’s shocking discovery is actually just a stamp of confirmation. Otherwise the fatal shootings, robberies, ATM bombings and other criminal activities have long alerted us to the reality that guns are everywhere in Eswatini.

There are far too many guns in the wrong hands here and if the history of the revolution in South Africa is anything to go by, many more are still to come.

By the time the political instability ends, if it ever will, almost every family will have a firearm, to defend itself from both criminals and the police.

Yes, the guns we are talking about are actually in the wrong hands of both robbers and police officers.

The only difference is that criminals carry illegal ones while the police have registered and legal firearms in their hands.

Both parties, however, seem to have come to some sort of agreement on how to use them: Irresponsibly.

Okay, this is not to suggest that there is any way a thug can utilise a firearm responsibly but you get the drift, don’t you?

SHOCKING

Shocking, shocking, shocking… that the police, who claim to be fearing for their lives these days, could also be found doing exactly what they say they are afraid of; that is being shot at without provocation.

Maybe they did not get the memo from Ngwempisi Member of Parliament (MP) Mthandeni Dube, who recently called for an end to the wave of violence sweeping across this unfortunate nation.

Much like reggae legend Lucky

Dube, the MP advocates peace.

On August 11, 2022, the incarcerated legislator told his sympathisers and the nation at large, to avoid violence at all costs.

“Stop the violence, including the killing of police officers,” he advised.

It appears that his advice has been rejected wholesale by both sides.

Violence continues unabated and killing is the order of the day.

The police officer shot in Ngculwini recently was killed shortly after this warning from the much-loved parliamentarian, who is in jail with the equally popular Bacede Mabuza of Hosea.

The killing of two people in Mpaka last Sunday, merely for being in alleged possession of a stolen safe, proves that some guns are in the hands of wrong police officers. This is just one incident of many, mind you.

Come to think of it, are we not where we are as a nation because of the same wrong hands shooting dead over 50 people on June 29 last year? Exactly.