Pension stolen in Swazi heist

2008-10-15 19:05

Mbabane - Robbers stole hundreds of thousands of dollars meant for poor pensioners in a brazen heist on Wednesday on a Swazi police station that shocked the small impoverished African country, police said.

Six men came to the Piggs Peaks police station, near the northern border with South Africa, in the early hours pretending to report a stolen cell phone, a spokesperson said.

"Shots were fired and the men then locked police officers in a cell," the spokesperson, Superintendent Vusi Masuku said in a statement.

The thieves used a metal grinder to cut open a safe and made off with six million emalangemi (R6m) that was meant to be distributed to poor pensioners.

"For now we cannot comment on the allegations of an inside job because we are still investigating," Masuku told AFP.

The thieves' getaway vehicle was found abandoned in pine forests, about 20km from the station.

Elderly Swazis receive 500 emalangeni every three months as a pension.

The landlocked southern African country is ruled by an absolute mornach, King Mswati III, who has often come under pressure for leading an extravagant lifestyle while most of the nation's 1.1 million people live in dire poverty.

- AFP