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REVEALED: Detective Mphumelelo Mkhwanazi used R5 rifle,19 bullets to kill civilians during June 29 massacre.

Thursday, 20th January, 2022

MANKAYANE: Detective Mphumelelo Makhwanazi allegedly used an R5 rifle with serial number 320616 to shoot and kill dozens of civilians at Mankayane and surrounding areas during the 29th June 2021 massacre.

Documentary and electronic evidence in our possession suggests that on or around 29th June 2021 at around 8pm, 4453 Detective Mkhwanazi who is based at the Mankayane Police Station within the Criminal Investigations Department(CID) used the R5 rifle with twenty-three(23) live rounds of ammunition to shoot and kill dozens of civilians including one Thubalethu Ngwenya.

Mkhwanazi is an alleged resident of Fonteyn, Mbabane next to kaLungile and he drives a white altezza registered TSD 155 AL.

According to the documents, Detective Mkhwanazi, took the gun from 5755 Constable Thamsanqa Mavuso who was patrolling at Mankayane during the day, however, the political unrest subsequently intensified during the night of 29th June 2021 and then Mavuso handed over the gun to Mkhwanazi.

The sequence of events as reflected in the police “Occurrence Book” suggests that when Constable Mavuso took the gun to patrol the town during the day, it had  twenty-three(23) bullets, he then handed it over to Detective Mkhwanazi and that was when it returned with only four(4)bullets after the alleged shooting.

When this publication contacted some police sources to verify and seek clarity with regards to some of the documents, it was confirmed that indeed, Detective Mkhwanazi returned with only four(4) bullets. 

“As you can see in the documents, Constable Thamsanqa Mavuso took the gun to patrol the town during the day on the 29th June and there was no activity hence he didn’t shoot anyone. Around 8pm, the people started the night protests and Detective Mkhwanazi took the R5 rifle with twenty-three(23) live rounds of ammunition to control the protestors, as reflected in the documents, he then returned with only four(4) bullets. This means nineteen (19)bullets were used and many people were killed including Thubalethu Ngwenya”, said one of the police insiders.

Earlier, when this publication exposed the story of the police State documents for the first time, William Dlamini, the National Commissioner joined the fast lane and avoided questions. However, as the matter attracted the attention of the international community, this journalist subsequently had an interview with the South African Broadcasting Cooperation(SABC) and that was when Police Deputy Spokesperson Nosipho Mnguni responded.

“The Royal Eswatini Police is very concerned how documents such as the Occurrence Book was snapshot and leaked to the media because this is an operational document”, said Inspector Nosipho Mnguni, when responding to the SABC following an interview the South African TV station had with this journalist.

Efforts to reach Detective Mphumelelo Mkhwanazi proved unsuccessful at the time of compiling this report.

On or around the 16th January 2022, this Swaziland News, armed with documentary evidence published an exclusive investigative story exposing how police officers shot and killed innocent civilians merely for demanding democratic reforms.

It has been disclosed through the documents that more officers in various police stations were deployed to shoot and kill civilians, some of the names of implicated officers and their identities will be revealed in due course after an intensive investigation and evidence analysis.

The Human Rights Commission released a preliminary investigation report suggesting that forty-six(46) people were killed during the June 2021 political unrest.

But political parties and the civil society alleged that they were in possession of evidence suggesting that over one hundred(100) citizens were killed with over seventy(70) already identified.

Reached for comments earlier regarding the latest discovery of fresh evidence, Human Rights Lawyer Sibusiso Nhlabatsi said there was a need for an independent investigation to gather more evidence to ascertain what really happened during the June 2021 political unrest.

“If we were in a proper country, an inquiry was going to be established to investigate the death of the civilians. You will note that the Human Rights Commission gave us a base line regarding the alleged killing of civilians and we understand that they released a report based on their limited investigations.So, for us to know what really happened, we need an independently appointed Commission because we cannot rely on police reports as we know their dishonest conduct”, said the Human Rights Lawyer.

On or around 13th November 2021, Sabelo Masuku, the Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission told the Mail and Guardian that the findings of their report were merely a preliminary verification to establish facts on what happened and was not necessarily a full report.

“We did a preliminary verification to establish if indeed people were shot or not and the findings suggest that people were shot. We wanted to have verified data on the ground after so many different claims on who was arrested, injured, and died.” said the Human Rights Commissioner when speaking to the Mail and Guardian.

Reached for comments, Mduduzi ‘Magawugawu’ Simelane, the President of the Swaziland Liberation Movement(SWALIMO)said it was surprising that King Mswati who commanded his blood thirsty hooligans masquerading as police officers called the very same citizens to his kraal in the name of dialogue. 

“Who can be safe inside his kraal? We cannot forget and justice for our people will prevail eventually”, said the SWALIMO President.

REVEALED: Detective Mphumelelo Mkhwanazi used R5 rifle,19 bullets to kill civilians during June 29 massacre.
Detective Mphumelelo Mkhwanazi who allegedly shot and kill dozens of civilians.