{"id":33208,"date":"2026-04-28T14:09:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=33208"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:09:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:09:01","slug":"shock-in-eswatini-after-royal-security-officer-dies-during-sadc-duty","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/shock-in-eswatini-after-royal-security-officer-dies-during-sadc-duty\/","title":{"rendered":"Shock in eSwatini after royal security officer dies during SADC duty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Authorities in eSwatini are investigating a shocking incident in which a senior member of King Mswati III\u2019s security detail allegedly shot himself while on duty.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Lieutenant Colani Mdluli, who was part of the King\u2019s military protection unit, had been assigned to provide security for visiting Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state. The incident reportedly took place at the Royal Villas hotel in Ludzidzini, in front of official guests.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Details surrounding the circumstances remain unclear, and authorities have yet to provide a full account of what led to the tragedy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Editor of Swaziland News, Zweli Martin Dlamini, says there is little concrete information at this stage.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was no suicide note and from what we\u2019ve gathered from close relatives, he would occasionally complain about low salaries in the army,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":32972,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-33208","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Authorities in eSwatini are investigating a shocking incident in which a senior member of King Mswati III","published_date":"2026-04-28 14:06:00","news_description":"Authorities in eSwatini are investigating a shocking incident in which a senior member of King Mswati III","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33209,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/33208\/revisions\/33209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=33208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}