Swaziland’s new police commissioner Isaac Magagula is trying to convince the world that the Swazi police aren’t agents of state control – they’re really just cuddly folk who are on the side of ordinary people.
Despite the fact that police officers will now routinely carry guns (just in case), he says, they will respect their clients.
Oh yeah. The Swazi police are the Swazi police and they probably always will be until they stop being agents of King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
I was reminded of this by a reader’s letter in the Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper.
The reader told his own experiences of the cops. It happened on Monday (9 November 2009) when there was to be a mass boycott of a new ‘terminus’ bus rank in Manzini, Swaziland’s main commercial city.
The reader writes, ‘I arrived at the Satellite Bus Rank at around 7am and found the police and warders littered all over the town - 95 per cent of the people were police and warders.
‘They did not allow people to associate together. If you defied that order they would give you only two minutes to disperse or face the consequences.’
The reader went to a nearby park to get away from the police and to relax.
‘Along the way, I found four policemen relaxing with one feasting on potato chips. When I crossed the road near Swazibank offices I heard one policewoman complaining that she is feeling disappointed because the boycott seems to be failing to commence, because she wanted to beat up the bus conductors.’
When the reader arrived at Jubilee Park, he sat down to read a newspaper.
‘A minute later a police officer pounced on me saying I should get out of the park because it was reserved for the police. Imagine!
‘I am not a progressive. I had also been fed up with the lies that political parties are hot heads, idiots, empty vessels and power hungry lots. But from that experience I can safely say the political parties are speaking the truth. They are concerned about our welfare, like it or not. I’ve seen it and heard it. The police are brutal and careless. I may be tempted to join one of the progressives.’
‘How on earth can we be treated like this? What is the constitution for? What are the rights of association and freedom? I was deprived of all this during this day. It is not only me but we are many.’
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