AFRICANEWS

Swaziland

Concern over rising cases of police brutality

Human rights

The tiny southern Africa Kingdom of Swaziland has always been touted as a safe haven in a region ravaged by political and ethnic turmoil. But this safety is being achieved at the expense of the ordinary people who have been subjected to horrifying cases of brutality by the police.

Concern is rising in Swaziland that the desire of government to make the country a crime free haven for foreign investors is being accomplished through the endangerment of ordinary Swazis, who are increasingly subject to beatings, torture and even death in the hands of police out to obtain information on criminal activities or instant confessions from criminal suspects.

“Human rights are being violated left and right by the police, who are a law onto themselves,” charges Joshua Mzizi, President of the Human Rights Organisation of Swaziland. “It has come to pass that the average person fears the police,” says Member of Parliament, Nthuthuko Dlamini. During the first week of April, two teenage boys died under mysterious circumstances while in police custody. Another youth was shot dead a few days later while under arrest. Both were involved in what were said to be trivial offences. Meanwhile, Thuli Fakudze, a woman who was picked up for questioning over a theft at her workplace, plans to file suit against the police for the wrongful death of her unborn child. She was released after police found no evidence against her, but not before she was subjected to the type of interrogation torture that other suspects questioned by the Royal Swaziland Police Force say they also endured. A plastic bag was slipped over her head, and tightened around her neck. Shortly after she left police custody, Fakudze suffered a miscarriage, the result, she claims, of the torture she underwent at the hands of her police interrogators.

While sympathetic to the lack of financial resources faced by Swaziland's police force, the independent Times of Swaziland has condemned police use of torture as “detective work by other means.” The paper charges that the police are unable because of incompetence or a shortage of resources to obtain evidence that will hold up in court, and so detectives put their emphasis on acquiring confessions from suspects, through whatever means necessary. The police officially deny any use of torture.

But last year they settled several cases out of court with claimants who sued after being allegedly tortured. Because the cases never went to trial, a public airing of the facts was never presented. “It is confusing why Swaziland, which is so peaceful and crime free compared to other Southern African nations, particularly neighbouring countries like South Africa and Mozambique, should have this police brutality blemish,” worries John Matsebula, a business owner in the central commercial city Manzini.

One answer appears to be government's eagerness to attract foreign direct investment to the tiny southern Africa Kingdom that is surrounded by the more prosperous South Africa. One inducement offered to expatriate business people is a crime-free country. “Government is under pressure because of the tremendously competitive environment in the southern Africa region,” says a source with the Swaziland Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “Swaziland desperately needs foreign investment to generate jobs and tax revenue. The police fall under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister, who is a former World Bank executive and a key promoter of investment. Police are told to pursue zero tolerance for things like armed robbery, car jacking and burglary, “crimes that might affect foreigners.”

In his 2001 budget speech, finance minister Majozi Sithole announced that government's freeze on the hiring of new public sector workers will be broken to allow for the addition of 200 new police officers to the national force. “The new police officers will be used to provide safety for tourists,” Sithole said, implying also addition protection for all foreigners. At the same time, ordinary Swazis have had enough of what they perceive as discrimination, and police abuses that many people have come to see as life threatening.

“I was unable to talk sense to my son after he stole 20 litres of maganu (local brew) from his aunt. I asked the police to intervene,” said Soul Dlamini, father of Sifiso Dlamini. The police picked up his son, and within two hours Sifiso was reportedly shot while attempting to escape custody. Dlamini says four days passed before he was informed of the death of his son. The use of deadly force in this case over a small crime reinforced unease in the country already generated by the deaths of two other teenagers, Sibusiso Jele and Edison Makhanya, twelve hours after their arrests. The crime they were accused of committing was also trivial. They were alleged to have stolen some cellular telephones. “The police say the boys died in hospital after swallowing insecticide tablets,” says reporter Martin Dlamini. “What is hard to swallow is that they would kill themselves over a theft charge. And where did they get poison while in custody, because they were arrested while asleep, and placed naked in the police van?”

A relative reports seeing blood from head wounds on one of the boys. The family has hired an independent pathologist from South Africa to conduct an autopsy. If the findings prove the boys died from police beatings, MP Nthuthuko Dlamini has vowed a confrontation with those responsible. “I have information that the boys arrived already dead at the hospital,” Dlamini says. “Youth in my area are waiting to march on the police headquarters to protest.” The legislator has been criticised for encouraging people to take up arms against the police. But he has vowed not to back down in the face of what he describes as police lawlessness. Others are characterising fatal police interrogations as extreme carelessness, rather than premeditated murder. But even moderate voices are calling for investigations and answers. One student who preferred not to give his name managed to pinpoint an illogic: “Police tactics that wish to reduce crime are creating tension and resentment, so that people lose respect for police, and fear them, and want to fight them. When that happens, you have more crime than before.”

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