This past weekend Buhle and his team held two workshops in the southern part of Swaziland. On Saturday, they traveled to the Makhonza area where they held a workshop that was attended by over 70 people, many of whom were already acquainted with the law. The workshop covered the treatment of suspects while in custody and admissibility of evidence. The participants were very involved in the session and asked a lot of questions concerning the topics covered. During the workshop, Buhle’s team had some problems when they stated that the local chief, who was present at the event, had no power to preside over criminal disputes. Although the chief rejected their statement, Buhle’s team managed to uphold their position without any further problems.

The next day, the team traveled further south to Lavumisa for another workshop. From the start of the session, Buhle’s team realized that the participants had very different attitudes than those who attended the workshop the day before. Believing that Buhle’s team was only made up of students who did not know the law, the almost all of the participants initially refused to talk and constantly requested the presence of the police station commander. However, dialogue eventually began without the police station commander’s presence and Buhle’s team was able to develop an understanding of the relationship between the community and state police and the negative feelings that prevailed between the two forces.