By Zweli Martin Dlamini

Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala’s statement seeking to intimidate Hhukwini Member of Parliament(MPs) Alec Lushaba and by extension, the entire House of Parliament has been clarified by Attorney General(AG) Sifiso Mashampu Khumalo.

The AG addressed Parliament on Friday confirming the Legislative Arm of Government’s constitutional mandate to hold the Executive accountable and therefore, the legal opinion of the AG ruled Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala off-side and in the Parliamentary ‘language’, out of order.

Criticism by Parliament does not in any way, seeks to undermine the authority of the other Arms of Government but to promote transparency and accountability in the public administration.

We know that in eSwatini, Parliament is highly compromised and not entirely independent but at least, we must allow it to breathe and debate issues.

Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala must know that he is not immune to criticism and, must stop threatening MPs with contempt of court charges because he cannot arrest anyone in this country without the approval of the National Commissioner of Police or the Minister of Police Russell Dlamini.

This means, even though the Chief Justice seems to be power drunk, his judicial power is literally useless without the other institutions of the State, it is the Parliament that approves a budget for the Judiciary and MPs can just decide to freeze his budget until he learns to subscribe to accountability and respect Parliament as an important Arm of Government.

Indeed, he can issue a warrant of arrest against anyone but, cannot leave the Chambers to arrest an MP, it’s the duty of the police to arrest not Judges.

So a Judge becomes powerful when complemented by the other Arms of the Government, a warrant of arrest becomes a useless piece of paper without the law enforcement agency.

So it’s important for the Chief Justice to understand that, his corrupt conduct will soon isolate him from the other Arms of the State and he will literally be useless be grounded.

We thank the AG for clarifying this, Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala castrated the Anti Corruption Commission(ACC) and now, he is attempting to castrate Parliament by silencing MPs.

So all State institutions questioning him on allegations of wrongdoing or corruption must be castrated or threatened with contempt of court?.

It’s time to remove this Chief Justice, he is destroying the country’s justice system.

We don’t want MPs to be threatened with arrest in this country merely for speaking in Parliament, even those we disagree with politically, we want them to speak freely because politics is about debates.