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Friday 11 August 2017

POLICE SHOOT-UP ‘DRINK-DRIVER’S’ CAR

At least 15 armed police officers in Swaziland shot at an suspected drink-driver leaving his car riddled with more than 20 bullet holes, a newspaper in the kingdom reported.

According to the Times of Swaziland (8 August 2017) the police chased a BMW sedan. The newspaper reported the driver Wandile Bhembe, aged 30, saying he had not seen the traffic cops because they had the headlights of their cars switched off. It happened in Manzini, Swaziland’s main commercial city.

He said he heard gun shots. ‘When I looked back, I saw vehicles being driven without lights on and people shooting at my car. Realising that my life was in danger, I sped off and the cars pursued me until I got to the Ngwane Park bridge,’ the Times reported Bhembe saying.

A bullet burst one of his tyres, he lost control of the car and it crashed into a tree.

The Times reported, ‘At the time, the team of uniformed police officers parked their vehicles and allegedly used their pistols to break the vehicle windows.’

The Times reported Bhemebe saying, ‘While trying to open the door and preparing to get off, the cops dragged me into a nearby drainage and severely assaulted me all over the body using fists, kicks and open hands.’ 

Bhembe ended up in hospital with injuries all over his body, especially to his head, mouth and chest, the Times reported.

Swazi police have a long history of shooting civilians in the kingdom where King Mswati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

In November 2015 they shot a man at close range after he overturned rubbish bins and then ran away from them. The Times of Swaziland, reported at the time that a 21-year-old man had been suspected of throwing rubbish in the road and pelting vehicles with stones. The newspaper said, ‘he was shot by police at close range after refusing to board their vehicle’.

In October 2015 police fired guns and teargas at workers engaged in a legitimate protest against employment conditions at the Zheng Yong Garment factory in Nhlangano. 

A plain-clothed policeman shot an unarmed man in the back killing him while on a public bus in February 2014. The man had allegedly stolen some copper wire before boarding the bus, travelling from Siteki, in eastern Swaziland to Manzini. The Times Sunday newspaper reported at the time the driver of the bus Majahonke Zikalala said, ‘the man was attempting to force his way out of the bus, the police officer shot him in the back, near the spine… the man fell on the floor after which he was handcuffed while he bled’. He died of his injures at the scene.

In March 2013, Swaziland police shot a man dead in front of his 11-year-old child as he held his hands up in an attempt to surrender to them. Thokozani Mngometulu, aged 31, was killed as he got out of his car at his homestead in Dlakadla, in the Shiselweni region of Swaziland. Thokozani’s family, who also witnessed the killing, say he was shot in the pelvis at close range by a police officer.

In June 2012, a serial rapist suspect Bhekinkhosi Masina, popularly known as Scarface, was shot by police as they cornered him for arrest. Police say they only shot him in the thigh and he unexpectedly died of his injuries. The Times of Swaziland newspaper later revealed he had been shot six times, including in the head and back.

In July 2012, a mentally ill man, Mduduzi Mngometulu, aged 34,
was shot seven times by police and died of his injuries. He had four holes in his stomach, one in the leg and two bullet wounds on the left side of his chest.

These are not isolated incidents in Swaziland where police across the kingdom have a growing record of killing or maiming suspects before arrest. The cases have largely gone unreported outside of the kingdom itself.

In one example, police executed a suspect, Thabani Mafutha Dlamini, at Nkwalini in Hlatikulu in the presence of his colleagues and home boys
in what local media called ‘cowboy style’. The Swazi Observer newspaper reported the incident in December 2011 saying, ‘Police had previously warned the mother of the dead man to “budget for funeral expenses” as they intended to remove him. He was said to be on a police “wanted list”’. Dlamini was unarmed.

In a separate case in February 2011, a Swazi policeman shot Mbongeni Masuku, described in media as a Form IV pupil, in the head in what was later described as
‘an execution-style killing’. The killing happened outside a bar in Matsapha, an industrial town in Swaziland. Masuku’s uncle Sigayoyo Maphanga said Mbongeni had been dragged out of his car by police. He told the Swazi Observer, a policeman whom he named, ‘shot my nephew at the back of the left ear and he fell on the ground with blood oozing from his mouth and ears. We were all shocked and angered by such brutality from police officers.’ 

In May 2011, Mathende Matfonsi was shot dead by police while he was attending a field of dagga (marijuana) inside the remote forests of Lomahasha near the border with Mozambique. His family accused the police of ‘cold-blooded murder’. Matfonsi was shot dead at Ebhandeni, the same area where Nkosinathi Khathwane had previously been shot dead by soldiers at night.

In March 2010, police
shot a man as he was trying to surrender to them. This time the victim, Mncedisi Mamba, did not die. His mother Thoko Gamedze said Mamba had his hands up and was surrendering to police, but they shot him anyway.

It is not only crime suspects who get shot at. In June 2013, police
fired live bullets and teargas as children protested against alleged corruption at Mhubhe High School in Ngculwini Police were called after school pupils boycotted classes.

See also


POLICE SHOOT SURRENDERING MAN
SWAZI POLICE ‘MURDER’ SUSPECT
POLICE ‘EXECUTE’ SUSPECT IN STREET
SWAZI POLICE SHOOT-TO-KILL AGIN
POLICE SHOOT AND KILL MENTALLY ILL MAN
 
POLICE ‘SHOT ACCUSED RAPIST IN HEAD’
POLICE SHOOT-TO-KILL ON BUS
POLICE KILL SURRENDERING MAN
TEXTILE PROTEST: POLICE FIRE GUNS
SWAZI POLICE SHOOT-TO-KILL
‘HORROR TALE OF SWAZI POLICE TORTURE
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2016/09/horror-tale-of-swazi-police-torture.html

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