Game rangers in Swaziland
shot dead a ‘mentally challenged’ man they suspected of poaching in what the
newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III called ‘cold blooded murder.’
It comes at a time when a
United Nations’ group is questioning Swaziland about a law that gives game
rangers immunity from prosecution for killing any person suspected of having
poached and just after Survival
International reported Swaziland ‘appears’ to
have a shoot-on-sight policy that allows game rangers to kill suspected
poachers.
The most recent killing
happened at Sihhoye. The Swazi Observer
reported on Wednesday (17 May 2017) rangers at Inyoni Yami Swaziland Irrigation
Scheme (IYSIS) shot a resident who had lived all his life on the roadside and
was known to the rangers who assaulted him and ‘finished him off as he ran for
dear life’.
It added, ‘As if that was
not enough the rangers are alleged to have emptied some of their ammunition on
themselves in an attempt to either conceal evidence or to carry out orders from
a superior who had been giving instructions throughout.’
The man was named as John
Tsabedze and described as a ‘lone village wanderer who scavenged for a living
at the Tshaneni shopping complex trash bins where he collected leftovers’.
Local newspapers described him as ‘mentally challenged’.
The Observer quoted a herd boy who said he heard screams and struggles.
The newspaper reported, ‘Tsabedze was dragged from his lonely hut on the
grazing land strip nearly half a kilometre from the fence with the game farm across
the road to the nearby bushes on the other side where he was finished off.’
The herd boy named
Siyabonga Galela Magagula said he witnessed the entire event. The Observer reported, ‘He says Tsabedze
kept on fighting and he, Magagula, heard a shot being fired, apparently
Tsabedze had freed himself and ran to the bushes across the road fencing on the
other end with the rangers in pursuit. After disappearing into the bushes there
were more gunshots and there was a sudden deafening silence that was followed
by another two shots. Minutes later Tsabedze’s still body was dragged to the
roadside and that was the last he saw of the elderly citizen.’
The Times of Swaziland
reported on Wednesday that according to witnesses Tsabedze, ‘was unarmed and he
raised his hands to the air after he was surrounded by the rangers, which meant
that he was no threat to them’.
The Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati, called the
shooting, ‘cold blooded murder’.
Police fired teargas to
disperse about 50 Sihhoye residents who later protested
at Cattle Country against the killing.
The killing comes at the
time that Swaziland’s delay in implementing the United Nations
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is under scrutiny.
Swaziland signed in 2004 and its initial report on progress was due by 2005,
but 13 years later it has failed to report. After such a long delay, the Human
Rights Committee (HRC) has scheduled a review of the kingdom in the absence of
report. This
review will take place in July 2017.
Among other issues the HRC
is asking questions about ‘the right to life’ in the kingdom. On game rangers,
it asks the Swazi Government this, ‘Please explain what measures the State
party [Swaziland] is taking to bring the Game Act (No. 51/1953) as amended in
1991, which gives conservation police personnel (game rangers) immunity from
prosecution for killing any person suspected of having poached, in line with
the Covenant, and to train game rangers in human rights.’
Last month (April 2017), Survival International wrote to the United Nations Special Rapporteur
on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, saying Swaziland ‘appears’
to have a shoot-on-sight policy that allows game rangers to kill suspected
poachers.
In its letter it said, ‘We say “appears” because
usually the policy is not defined by any law, or even written down. As a consequence, nobody knows when wildlife
officers are permitted to use lethal force against them, and it is impossible
for dependents to hold to account officers whom they believe to have killed
without good reason.’
Stephen Corry, Survival International Director, said
the shoot-on-sight policy directly affected people who lived close to game
parks and guards often failed to distinguish people hunting for food from
commercial poachers.
There has been concern in
Swaziland for many years that game rangers have immunity from prosecution and
can legally ‘shoot-to-kill’.
In 2016, the Swaziland
Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) reported to a United Nations
review on human rights in Swaziland, ‘There are numerous cases where citizens
are shot and killed by game rangers for alleged poaching as raised by community
members in several communities such as Lubulini, Nkambeni, Nkhube, Malanti,
Sigcaweni, and Siphocosini.
‘In terms of Section 23 (3)
[of the Game Act] game rangers are immune from prosecution for killing
suspected poachers and empowered to use firearm in the execution of their
duties and to search without warrant,’ SCCCO told the United Nations Human
Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review of Swaziland in a report.
In January 2014,
Swaziland’s Police Commissioner Isaac Magagula said rangers were allowed to
shoot people who were hunting for food to feed their hungry families.
He told a meeting of
traditional leaders in Swaziland, ‘Of course, it becomes very sad whenever one
wakes up to reports that rangers have shot someone. These people are protected
by law and it allows them to shoot, hence it would be very wise of one to shun
away from trouble.’
His comments came after an
impoverished unarmed local man, Thembinkosi Ngcamphalala, aged 21, died of gunshot wounds. He had been shot by a ranger outside of the
Mkhaya Nature Reserve. His family, who live at Sigcaweni just outside the
reserve’s borders, said he had not been poaching.
Campaigners say poor people
are not poaching large game, such as the endangered black rhinos, but go
hunting animals, such as warthogs, as food to feed themselves and their
families. Hunger and malnutrition are
widespread in Swaziland
where seven in ten of King Mswati’s subjects live in abject poverty. Many are
forced to become hunters and gatherers to avoid starvation.
King Mswati III, who rules
Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, has given game rangers
permission to shoot-to-kill people suspected of poaching wildlife on his land
and protects them from prosecution for murder in some circumstances.
Ted Reilly, the chief
executive of Big Game Parks (BGP), which owns and manages Mlilwane Wildlife
Sanctuary and Mkhaya Nature Reserve and also manages Hlane National Park, the
kingdom’s largest protected area, held in trust for the Nation by the King, holds a Royal Warrant to allow him to shoot-to-kill.
He has had this for at
least twelve years. In 2004 Reilly appeared in a documentary produced by
Journeyman Pictures in which he spoke of his relationship to the King and
showed his warrant on camera.
The documentary commentator
said, ‘He [the King] gave Ted a Royal Warrant that allowed him to arrest and if
necessary shoot-to-kill the poachers.’
The commentator added, ‘The
Royal Warrant, still in force today, protects rangers from prosecution for
murder as long as the poacher draws his weapon first.’
Reilly said, ‘It is the
biggest honour that you could possibly imagine.’
Reilly showed the
documentary makers a specially-made fort with gun turrets, where rangers can
hide to shoot at poachers. He also showed surveillance towers. ‘From here, we
go out, we launch attacks,’ he said.
On camera, Reilly said the
automatic weapons his rangers used against poachers, ‘are much smaller than the
AK-47, but are equally as devastating. You don’t survive one of those shots if
it hits you properly’.
Reilly told the
documentary, ‘Our guys aren’t to be messed with. If they [poachers] come after
rhino they’re going to get hurt, and if he gets killed or maimed, well, you
know, who’s to blame for that?’
See also
RANGERS ‘CAN SHOOT TO KILL’
TRUE FACE OF INJUSTICE IN SWAZILAND
