POLICE DROP STUDENT LEADER CHARGES

Criminal charges against student leader Sibusiso Siyaya have been withdrawn. He had been charged with obstructing police when he went to Malkerns police station to inquire about the well-being of students who had been arrested during a protest.

It happened in September 2017. At the time voice recordings emerged of police threatening Siyaya, who was President of the Student Representative Council at the University of Swaziland.

On Wednesday (1 November 2017) he appeared at Malkerns Circuit Court to be told charges had been dropped. He told the Swazi Observer newspaper on Friday no reasons were given to him.

In September 2017 it was reported that police threatened to beat-up Siyaya at Malkerns police station. 

 The incident was captured on voice recorder and details published in a national newspaper.

Siyaya made a phone call while in the reception area of the police station and the call was recorded.

The Sunday Observer newspaper reported (10 September 2017) many voices of police officers can be heard on the tape. At one point a policeman asks Siyaya, ‘Why are you here? What do you want here? Who called you? We will beat you,’

The newspaper reported, ‘[V]oices of a group of people believed to be police officers hurl all sorts of insults and ridicule him. The upper voice heard is believed to be that of a male police officer who hurls a vernacular insult directed to Siyaya that cannot be repeated for ethical reasons.’

Siyaya was arrested and charged at the station with obstructing police in the course of their duty. He appeared at magistrates court the following day and was released on bail of E2,000 (US$150). In Swaziland, seven in ten people are so poor they have incomes of less than US$2 a day.

At the time other students said they had been tortured by police while in holding cells.

Following the dropping of charges, the Observer reported Siyaya said he ‘was shocked because his arrest exposed him to humiliation and abuse by the police’. 

Other students arrested at the protest have been bailed to appear in court on 12 December 2017.

See also

POLICE BEATING THREAT CAUGHT ON AUDIO

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/police-beating-threat-caught-on-audio.html

 

SWAZI STUDENT LEADERS ARRESTED

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/swazi-student-leaders-arrested.html

PROTESTS CLOSE SWAZILAND UNIVERSITY

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/protests-close-swaziland-university.html

ARMED POLICE END STUDENT PROTEST

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/armed-police-end-student-protest.html

STUDENTS ARRESTED AT COURT HOUSE

Six university students in Swaziland were arrested at a court house when they went to give support to one of their leaders charged after a protest over poor educational standards.

It happened on Wednesday (13 September 2017) at Malkerns Circuit Court where Sibusiso Siyaya, the President of the University of Swaziland (UNISWA) student representative council, faced a charge of obstructing police.

The students were taken for questioning at Malkerns police post, according to the Swazi Observer on Thursday. The newspaper reported that Siyaya confirmed the incident. Police would neither confirm nor deny the arrests.

Siyaya appeared in court charged with obstructing a police officer who was trying to arrest another student. He was bailed until 1 November 2017.

On Sunday the Sunday Observer newspaper in Swaziland reported that Siyaya had been threatened with a beating and verbally abused on Friday when he went to Malkerns police post to inquire about the wellbeing of students arrested during protests at UNISWA. The police action had been recorded on a mobile phone.

Students are protesting a number of issues including:

·         Lack of accommodation for more than 600 students who are mostly those doing their first year.

·         Release of book allowances currently not accessible at the bookshop, although lectures have begun.

·         Refectory prices were abruptly increased without any consultation.

·         The university never signed a circular which was distributed to all tertiary institutions by the Swazi Government which meant sponsored students would be paid  directly from the Ministry of Labour. Students and not through the university administration.

·         Government-sponsored students have not received meal allowances, although the university opened three weeks ago.

·         Reverse a decision by UNISWA to ban student body meetings.

See also

POLICE ‘TORTURE’ STUDENTS IN CELLS

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/police-torture-students-in-cells.html

 

POLICE BEATING THREAT CAUGHT ON AUDIO

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/police-beating-threat-caught-on-audio.html

SWAZI STUDENT LEADERS ARRESTED

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/swazi-student-leaders-arrested.html

PROTESTS CLOSE SWAZILAND UNIVERSITY

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/protests-close-swaziland-university.html

POLICE ‘TORTURE’ STUDENTS IN CELLS

Students say they were tortured while in police holding cells after being arrested following a class boycott at the University of Swaziland (UNISWA).

This was reported by the Sunday Observer newspaper in Swaziland (10 September 2017). The students were at Malkerns police station.

Eight students had originally been arrested after disturbances at the university on the previous Thursday. Six were later released without charge. Two were charged with house breaking and theft charges.

The Observer reported, ‘Some of the students who were rounded up by police revealed that they were tortured while inside police holding cells.’

It added that Sakhile Ndzimandze, Secretary General of the UNISWA students representative council, ‘stated that they have also learned that while in police custody, [SRC] President [Sibusiso] Siyaya was tortured by police officers’.

Royal Swaziland Police Service spokesperson Superintendent Khulani Mamba told the newpaper students who allege they were tortured should report the matter to police.

See also

POLICE BEATING THREAT CAUGHT ON AUDIO

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/police-beating-threat-caught-on-audio.html

 

SWAZI STUDENT LEADERS ARRESTED

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/swazi-student-leaders-arrested.html

PROTESTS CLOSE SWAZILAND UNIVERSITY

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/protests-close-swaziland-university.html

POLICE BEATING THREAT CAUGHT ON AUDIO

Police in Swaziland threatened to beat-up a student leader when he visited a police station to check on students who had been arrested during a university protest.

The incident was captured on voice recorder and details published in a national newspaper.

It happened on Friday (8 September 2017) at Malkerns police station.

Sibusiso Siyaya, President of the student representative council at the University of Swaziland, had gone to the station to check on eight students who had been detained after a class boycott.

Siyaya made a phone call while in the reception area of the police station and the call was recorded. 

The Sunday Observer newspaper reported (10 September 2017) many voices of police officers can be heard on the tape. At one point a policeman asks Siyaya, ‘Why are you here? What do you want here? Who called you? We will beat you,’

The newspaper reported, ‘[V]oices of a group of people believed to be police officers hurl all sorts of insults and ridicule him. The upper voice heard is believed to be that of a male police officer who hurls a vernacular insult directed to Siyaya that cannot be repeated for ethical reasons.’

Siyaya was arrested and charged at the station with obstructing police in the course of their duty. He appeared at magistrates court the following day and was released on bail of E2,000 (US$150). In Swaziland, seven in ten people are so poor they have incomes of less than US$2 a day.

See also

SWAZI STUDENT LEADERS ARRESTED

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/swazi-student-leaders-arrested.html

PROTESTS CLOSE SWAZILAND UNIVERSITY

http://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/protests-close-swaziland-university.html

SWAZI STUDENT LEADERS ARRESTED

About 10 student leaders in Swaziland have been arrested following protests at the kingdom’s principal university.

No charges have been publicly revealed and the students are due to appear at magistrates court on Saturday (9 September 2017).

The Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) a pro-democracy group banned in Swaziland where King Mswati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, said in a statement, ‘The Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS) reports that during a student boycott at the University of Swaziland (UNISWA), particularly at the Luyengo Campus, Sibusiso Siyaya, SRC President was arrested. This was on Friday 8th September, 2017. 

‘This was when the students leader had gone to the police station to check on about nine of his colleagues arrested earlier. They are due to appear in court today [Saturday 9th September, 2017,]. It is not clear what offence they have committed or charged with.’

Students are engaged in ongoing protests, the SSN reported.

It said, ‘SSN supports the legitimate demands by the students as stated below:

1.      Accommodation for more than 600 students who are still without accommodation, mostly those doing their first year and others.
2. Release of book allowances currently not accessible at the bookshop. It is unfathomable that lectures continued whilst some students did not have required books and stationery.
3. Dropping of prices of refectory which were abruptly increased without any communiqué and engagement of relevant structures such as the SRC.
4. The university never signed a circular which was distributed to all tertiary institutions which comes with changes in allowance payments to Swaziland Government sponsored students. The arrangement was that these beneficiaries would be paid directly from the Ministry of Labour. Students need answers from the university administration.
5. Swaziland Government sponsored students need their meal allowances since they are forced to go to class on an empty stomach. The university opened three weeks ago.
6. Unbanning of student body meetings which were banned by the Vice Chancellor in March this year.’

See also

PROTESTS CLOSE SWAZILAND UNIVERSITY

https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/protests-close-swaziland-university.html