By Ntombi Mhlongo
It was not a good day for over 30 members of various political parties who desperately wanted to witness the second remand hearing of alleged terrorist Thabo Kunene and his co-accused at the High Court on Monday.
The activists had to spend the rest of the session arguing with members of the security forces who stood their ground at the entrance towards the courtroom, where the case was ongoing.
Dressed in replicas bearing slogans and names of their parties, the activists would now and again try to push the door to force their way in but were not successful.
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Officers from the security forces who manned the entrance included those from His Majesty’s Correctional Services and the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS).
Seeing that their plan to enter the courtroom was not working, some of the activists even hatched a plan to tell the security officers that they were family members of the ‘Commander’ and therefore deserved to be allowed inside.
Again, the plan did not work as the security officers told them the courtroom was full and that they had not arrived on time.
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At the end of the session, just before 10 am, the activists had hoped that the ‘Commander’ would be escorted out of the court using the usual route.
They marched outside and started singing their struggle songs only to find that a different exit had been used. In the end, they sang their struggle songs and screamed his name as the convoy escorting him drove out of the High Court premises.
Kunene and his co-accused face 43 charges, one of which is allegedly contravening the Suppression of Terrorism Act.
