Mbabane: Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross Piggs Peak branch senior officer is accused of abusing his power and awarded his girlfriend a position in the Police service in Eswatini , who later jilted him .
During the interview senior officer confessed that he indeed dated a volunteer, which on its own is against Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross policy. He claims that they dated before the lady joined Red Cross as a volunteer but later separated which is contrary to what the investigation uncovered.
Due to the good relationship between Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross and the country’s armed forces, the forces (police, soldiers, warders, fire brigades) job opportunities are offered to the regional branches. The Field Officers are given the mandate to select a qualifying candidate to be recruited.
When the position was availed to get a volunteer for the police job at the Piggs Peak branch, the said officer did not follow the right procedure but simply picked his girlfriend Happiness Tsabedze.
Many volunteers were dissatisfied by the way girlfriend was chosen as the rightful candidate since they were not given a fair chance to compete for the rare opportunity, as the country is faced with high unemployment rate. They allege that they got to know about the job opportunity after girlfrind had left for training at Police College as she bragged for being the boss’ mistress.
“Wasihleka watsi siyalayeka ngoba sidlelwa lite,yena sotfole umsebenti lokahle imphilo yakhe yonkhe. Tsine asizange sanikwa litfuba lalomsebenti, banikana ekamelweni and naseHeadquarters bayayati lendzaba.” Narrated a female volunteer.
During our investigation, we discovered that the said officer had plans to marry the girlfriend, as he was also known to her family but did not go according to his plans. After getting what she wanted,she is alleged to have dumped Malaza and focused to her original boyfriend, who later impregnated her.
“It’s true that I was his girlfriend and that he helped me get the job. Bengisalibele lesoskhatsi but ngatibonela litfuba. My boyfriend who is senior officer told me that the police academy had offered Piggs Peak Red Cross branch one post for a volunteer to join the force. He told me to prepare my O’level certificate and take it to Mbabane Red Cross Headquarters the next day. That’s how I got the job with the police force.” Said the girlfriend.
When Independent News interviewed the senior officer about the allegations, he himself confessed that he indeed dated the said woman. He said the romance started before she was a volunteer but denied giving her the opportunity to the police academy as a sex favour.
“It’s true that I was romantically involved with her but what’s not true is that I gave her the opportunity because she was my girlfriend. When the Headquarters asked me to recruit one qualifying volunteer from my team, I made calls to three volunteers and asked them how many credits they got in O’level. Indeed, she was among them.”
When asked how he selected the three volunteers he claimed to have called three volunteers and asked how they performed with their Form results. He said the call from Headquarters came at short notice thus he didn’t have enough time to make a proper and fair selection.
The organisation’s Communication officer Nontobeko Dlamini said they have strong relationship with the country’s armed forces thus they sometimes offer a few vacancies to the organisation. Dlamini mentioned that the Headquarters gives the regional field officers the mandate to select volunteers who qualifies for positions available from the armed forces.
“We are not aware of the allegations that the latest one was unfairly selected nor that they were dating with her supervisor.”
Discussion about this post