07 May 2008
Thief rapes cop
BY MBONGISENI NHLEKO
MANZINI – A daring thug breached police security
and entered their camp where he went on to break
into one of the female officers’ houses and
later raped her.
The man, aged only 20, has since confessed to
the shameful act after he was caught and
arrested after also stealing the officer’s
belongings.
Jabulani Shongwe yesterday pleaded guilty to the
charges for the incident that happened on the
night of April 2, 2008.
The officer’s name is known to The Times but
ethically will not be disclosed as she is a
survivor of a sexual abuse offence. He appeared
before Manzini Senior Magistrate David Khumalo
charged with two counts.
charge
On the first count, Shongwe is facing a charge
of rape. Magistrate Khumalo informed him that he
is said to have had sexual intercourse with the
complainant without her consent.
On the second count, he is said to have broken
into the house occupied by the complainant at
Sidvokodvo Junior Brigades’ compound with the
intention to steal and then stole a number of
items.
These items include a camouflage short, a polo
neck, a bag, a green cap, a T-shirt, a
tracksuit, a leather jacket, a Nokia cellphone,
Craven A cigarettes, foodstuff, bananas, mangoes
and fruit juices.
These stolen items were brought to court and the
complainant was seen perusing through the bag
containing everything.
When his rights to legal representation were
explained to him, Shongwe preferred to conduct
his own defence.
He pleaded guilty to the charges and prosecuting
in this matter was Zeblon Myeni.
At the time of compiling this report, the court
had stood the matter, while attending to other
cases.
The court was also awaiting a medical report and
Magistrate Khumalo advised police officers to
ensure that they bring all the necessary
evidence when coming to court.
07 May 2008
Swaziland Festival honoured in Madagascar
THE country’s role in promoting cinema in Africa
was honoured this week at the island nation of
Madagascar when James Hall, Director of the Gold
Lion Film Festival, was commended at the 3rd
Madagascar Film Festival.
The festival was held at the Madagascan capital,
Antananarivo.
Stephane Bou, Director of the Madagascar Film
Festival, said when he introduced Hall to the
audience on stage at the closing of the
festival, “I cannot express all the profound
feelings l had during your stay in Madagascar.
You’ve been really helpful for all the young
Malagasy filmmakers. I hope we’ll manage to
continue and to organise the development of
cinema over here. And I really hope that we’ll
manage to build regional projects.”
Hall was asked to present an award for ‘Best New
Malagasy Filmmaker’. The recipient was Mamitiana
Randrianarisoa, who won for the first film he
submitted to the festival.
Hall was also invited on stage to speak about
the state of filmmaking in Swaziland, and to
make comparisons with what he discovered in
Madagascar.
A film directed by Hall was shown, entitled
‘Swazi Warriors Discover French Wine’. This was
the first screening of the film after it was
awarded the Raymond Ferrand Prize for Best
Comedy at the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival in
France.
The film was received with laughter and applause
in Madagascar.
“I was happily surprised. I was afraid that the
film might be too specific to Clermont-Ferrand,
and that other audiences might not appreciate
the jokes. But the audience in Antananarivo
accepted it as a complete film, which shows it
has 'egs,' as they say in showbiz,” said Hall.
Swaziland’s own festival goers will benefit from
the trip, which was sponsored by the Foreign
Ministry of the Government of France and
arranged by Vincent Garrigues, Cultural Attache
for TV, Film, Visual Arts and e-Media with the
French Embassy in Pretoria.
Alliance Francaise du Madagascar was the
principal sponsor of the Madagascar Film
Festival.
Alliance Francaise du Swaziland has been a
supporter of the Gold Lion Film Festival.
Several Madagascan filmmakers have submitted
their films for showing at the Gold Lion Film
Festival in October.
“These films are imaginative and very
instructive for people in Swaziland who wish to
become filmmakers.
The films are simple, done at no cost and they
capture the attitudes and essence of
contemporary Malagasy people. Such films should
be done by and about Swazis,” said Hall.
The Gold Lion Film Festival is held annually, on
the third week of October.
07 May 2008
Airlink passengers treated badly
By Musa Ndlangamandla
IN a first, 25 passengers on board Swaziland
Airlink refused to disembark from the aeroplane
demanding an explanation from management
concerning what they termed bad service.
As a result, the next flight from Matsapha to
Johannesburg was delayed for 30 minutes in the
fiasco.
The passengers claimed that they were abandoned
at OR Tambo International Airport with no food,
water or a proper place to put up at night.
This followed an embarrassing incident where the
aeroplane had to be flown back to Johannesburg
after it failed to land at Matsapha
International Airport because personnel from the
Fire and Emergency Services had already knocked
off.
One of the passengers was an 82- year- old woman
who had flown from Perth in Australia and was
visiting the country for the first time.
What worsened matters, it was claimed, was that
the lady had flown for over 28 hours and could
not take her medication.
One of the passengers, a potential investor from
a Middle-East country, vowed to sue the airline
for what he was made to go through.
He spoke to Swazi Observer from his hotel room
on Saturday morning and did not hide his
displeasure at the incident.
“We were flown back to Johannesburg and we got
to OR Tambo International Airport at around
10pm. The captain told us that he was calling
the Airlink offices so that they could dispatch
an official to assist the passengers. Someone
came in a bus she said she could only take us
from the runway to the terminal building. She
turned out to be an official from South African
Airways (SAA) and she told us that she had
nothing to do with the episode. She said Airlink
had fulfilled its duty and had no further
obligations,” said the prospective investor, who
asked not to be named.
He accused the captain of having misled the
passengers, leading to the cold, hungry night
inside the hallow terminal of O.R.Tambo
International Airport.
“How could they say they fulfilled their
obligation when they took us to Swaziland and
then could not land and had to take us back to
Johannesburg. First of all, it was them who
delayed departure from OR Tambo International,
had they been on time they would have found the
Swaziland airport still open,” he said.
He said they were given no phone number of an
airline official on duty, did not find the
airport duty manager and that the lady from SAA
and the crew disappeared on them.
“We did not have access to our luggage, which
was lock in the plane and we did not have
passports. When we approached the immigration
officials at OR Tambo International Airport, we
could not be helped, nor allowed to pass
through. He wondered where we surfaced from and
could not help us. This is pathetic and I will
sue. We were given the wrong information. Is
this the kind of service we want to give to
first time visitors to Swaziland?,” he wondered.
Swaziland Airlink Manager Teddy Mavuso
apologised to passengers for the incident and
called on all the affected people to contact the
airline’s customer care services at customercare@flyairlink.com.
He said he got information to the effect that
the passengers initially declined to disembark
from the aircraft.
“All I can confirm is that at OR Tambo
International the ground handling is done by
employees of SAA. I will investigate this matter
further and I wish to encourage all the people
who were affected to contact us and to register
their formal complaints.
What I did yesterday was call our Johannesburg
airport to alert them. We collectively agreed to
investigate. We do not know what happened and if
there is no complaint our efforts to get to the
bottom of the problem will face difficulty. All
I can say is that if there was something bad
that happened outside the scope of Swaziland
Airlink we apologise,” Mavuso said.