THE HELLISH LIFE OF JUNIOR POLICE OFFICERS
For many in eSwatini, police officers symbolize authority, power, and order. Yet behind the badge, junior officers endure a life of hardship, corruption, and systemic neglect.
While the public sees them as enforcers of the law, these officers struggle under poor working conditions, low wages, and a toxic institutional culture that crushes morale. Worse still, the public, or at least sections of them, have turned against them and not the senior police officers who make them enforce illegal and at times unconstitutional orders.
The Housing Crisis
Housing for junior officers remains a nightmare. Most are assigned to run-down government quarters, which are poorly maintained, barely furnished, and often shared with multiple colleagues. Many officers bring their families to these cramped spaces, creating overcrowding and constant friction. “We live like stray dogs,” said one junior officer who spoke on condition of anonymity at the Matsapha police accomodation site. He showed us his apartment which he shared with a colleague.
“The rooms are small, falling apart, and full of people. You can’t even rest properly after a night shift because someone’s baby is crying, someone’s wife is cooking, and someone else is arguing over electricity units.” These conditions not only affect their mental health but also lead to divisions within the ranks.
“There’s always tension—things go missing, people fight over space, and officers steal from each other. How can you trust the man next to you on patrol when he might have stolen your last food ration the night before?” another officer lamented.
Beat cops, those who perform all the field work, are often limited to substandard government housing, that is poorly maintained, barely furnished and shared with fellow officers, though the state claims that this issue has improved over the years. What exacerbates the already high tensions bound to arise with having to constantly share living space and faculties with others, is that officers tend to bring their partners and families to live with them, in extreme cases even extended families.
So many people occupying a space only meant to accommodate one person, leads to conflict. Issues of theft, clashing over space and home appliances, constant depletion of electricity and water. Such domestic problems are bound to not only negatively affect the officers’ performance on the job, but sows animosity amongst the ranks, leading to a breakdown of cohesion and communication in the force.
We Survive on Peanuts
Most junior officers live paycheck to paycheck, their modest salaries barely enough to cover rent, food, and family obligations. For seven years now, there has been a significant gap in the pay scale of the junior officers compared to the seniors after a salary restructuring exercise that was supposed to review all officers’ salaries was only applied to benefit those at the top.
The restructuring exercise was supposed to be in two phases; with the senior officers being the first in line and then followed by the juniors, but only the first phase was implemented. In July 2014, the Ministry of Public Service issued Circular No.2 of 2014, which outlined the format that the restructuring would take.
The restructuring of the police service under Circular No. 2 of 2014 significantly improved salaries for senior officers, while junior officers remained disadvantaged due to the non-implementation of the second phase of the restructuring. Under the new salary structure, the National Commissioner/Commissioner General receives E53 226.75 per month (E638 721 annually).
Senior Deputy National Commissioners earn E50 692.08 per month (E608 305 annually), while Deputy National Commissioners are paid E48 388 monthly (E580 656 annually). Assistant National Commissioners receive E44 953.66 per month (E539 444 annually), Senior Assistant Commissioners earn E43 512.42 monthly (E522 149 annually), and Assistant Commissioners take home E39 919.75 per month (E479 037 annually).
While senior officers benefited from these increases, junior officers relied solely on Cost of Living Adjustments (CoLA) awarded to civil servants after prolonged negotiations and strikes involving Public Sector Associations (PSAs). However, since junior officers are not allowed to unionize, they lack bargaining power in salary negotiations. There were two CoLA adjustments in 2015 and 2020, along with a salary review in 2016—popularly known as dvuladvula—which slightly improved junior officers’ earnings.
Notably, senior officers also benefited from these adjustments in addition to their restructuring-linked salary hikes. Before these increases, officers at the Constable I rank earned E4 267 per month, while those in the Constable II rank earned between E7 056 and E9 207.
According to the 2020/2021 Government Establishment Register, 74 percent of the police force (4 451 out of 5 985 officers) were in the rank of Constable. Following the 2015 CoLA and 2016 dvuladvula, Constable I salaries increased to E5 313, while Constable II earnings ranged between E8 785 and E11 462. After the 2020 CoLA, these figures rose to E5 472 for Constable I, and between E9 048 and E11 806 for Constable II.
While these salary adjustments improved earnings across the ranks, the disparity between senior and junior officers remains stark and this has led to a long standing rift within the lower and upper ranks of the police something that has seen a long drawn litigation at the High Court over the salaries of junior police officers.
The failure to implement the second phase of restructuring has left most police officers—especially constables—without significant wage improvements beyond CoLA increases. This ongoing pay gap underscores the inequalities within the police service, where the bulk of officers continue to earn far less than their superiors.
With no automatic salary increases, promotions remain the only hope for a better income—yet those are reserved for the well-connected. “We survive on peanuts,” said another officer. “By the time I pay my rent and send money home, I have nothing left. So, like many others, I turn to loans, and then I’m stuck in debt. The seniors don’t care. They have big salaries and drive fancy cars while we can’t even afford proper meals.”
Low wages push many officers toward desperate measures. “Corruption isn’t just greed—it’s survival,” admitted one officer who works under the traffic department when asked about allegations that routine traffic stops are now means for police to get bribes from the public for traffic violations.
“Some officers take bribes just to have money for transport. Others get involved in smuggling or selling confiscated goods like dagga. What choice do they have? The system forces them into it.” Swazi Bridge was told that many police officers survive by accepting bribes from dagga smugglers or the traffic fines bribes just as a way to cope in a hellish work environment.
This lack of proper pay contributes to poor financial decision and corruption amongst officers as they are forced to look on with envy as their corrupt seniors flaunt their often undeservedly high salaries. Thus, what little they make is wasted on various vices, from alcohol to gambling and prostitutes, behavior often egged on by their fellow officers to enforce the chauvinistic and degenerate workspace culture.
To make up for these diminished fund, and successfully compete amongst their peers for capital clout, officers turn to corruption and illegal practices to generate income, such as taking bribes, extortion, money laundering and selling valuable detained materials. It is a self-perpetuating cycle that effectively chokes out any incentive to follow their oaths and remain moral defenders of the community.
A Rigged Promotion System
Promotions in the eSwatini police force are not based on merit. Almost all senior positions in the force are acquired and held by those who worked “smart” and not hard, certainly not honest either. Nepotism is rife within the force, with titles and offices given out to family members, lovers, those who buy their way into the job and can leverage their strong political and/or traditional connections. Such people are bound to only award promotions and benefits to those within their inner circle or to those with shared values.
This ensures that everyone who has the power to incite meaningful change or do honest police work will instead pour the department’s resources into enriching themselves and those that keep them in power, at the cost of the efficiency of the junior officers’ ability to do their jobs. This will often be used as a justification for why most officers are never considered for said promotions.
“You can work for 15 years and never get a promotion,” said one officer bitterly. “But then you see someone who joined last year, and suddenly they’re wearing a new rank because they have an uncle in management or they paid their way up or they are linked to the royal family. If you don’t play dirty, you stay stuck forever.” An officer who had worked for the Royal eSwatini Police for 18 years claims he has not had a promotion for over 15 years now and watches his juniors get higher ranks than him. He says this builds resentment within him and makes him hate his job.
"Mine angisesilo liphoyisa. Ngisebenta emaphoyiseni (I am not a cop, I work at at the police station. That is how dispondent I am about this place," continued the father of two based at the Piggs Peak police station.
Equally pervasive is a culture of fear and abuse of Junior officers from their superiors. Verbal abuse, humiliation, and even physical punishment are common. “If you complain, they make your life hell,” one officer revealed. “You’ll get the worst shifts, the worst duties, and suddenly you’ll find yourself accused of something you didn’t do. Everyone knows it’s better to keep quiet and take the abuse than to challenge a senior officer.” The toxic work environment has also led to mental health struggles, with officers turning to alcohol and gambling as coping mechanisms. “We drink because we are broken,” admitted one officer.
"When you’re disrespected every day, underpaid, and living in terrible conditions, what else can you do?” "We Can’t Even Respond to Emergencies" –
A Lack of Basic Resources
Despite being tasked with enforcing the law, junior officers often lack the basic tools to do their jobs. “We don’t even have enough cars,” said an officer stationed in a rural area. “Sometimes, we get a report about a crime, but we can’t respond because we only have one car and it is not even road worthy. I am sure many people have seen how unroad worthy some police vans are. Even basic policing equipment is scarce."
“We don’t have bulletproof vests, we don’t have pepper spray, and sometimes we don’t even have handcuffs. We’re sent to dangerous situations unprotected. It’s like they don’t care whether we live or die,” another officer said.
The officers claimed that more often than not officers call people and do investigations using their own airtime while those at thr traffic department now use their private cars to mount road blocks something that he said is testament to lack of working tools but also illegal and wrong.
A Broken System, A Demoralized Force
The dysfunction within the police force has not gone unnoticed by the public. Increasingly, citizens are losing trust in law enforcement due to slow response times, corruption, and inefficiency. But junior officers say they are just as frustrated.
“The people hate us, and I understand why after the 2021 uprising but what most people miss is that we work with orders. We are a disciplined force, we serve the government of the day whether Tinkhundla or multi party you will always have police officers enforcing the orders and laws of the regime of the day. We have no choice, that is standard practice all over the world,” one officer admitted.
“But we are also victims of this corrupt system. We are overworked, underpaid, and treated like dirt. If things don’t change, policing in Eswatini will collapse completely. We were the biggest victims of 2021. Not even one senior police officer was killed in 2021 yet many junior police officers died protecting the bosses and their political handlers. ”
For many officers, the dream of serving their country has turned into a nightmare of suffering. As they endure impossible working conditions with little hope for improvement, the future of eSwatini’s law enforcement remains uncertain—trapped in a cycle of corruption, neglect, and despair.
Police spokesperson Superintended Phindile Vilakati refused to answer questions from Swazi Bridge.