MBABANE: Supreme Court Judges were allegedly involved in a serious disagreement ahead of the delivery of the bail appeal judgement in the high profile politically motivated criminal case involving pro-democracy Members of Parliament(MPs) Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube.
An independent investigation by this Swaziland News uncovered that on or around 28th March 2022, Supreme Court Jacobus Annandale decided to take some off-days from work, he has been writing the judgement at home.
Judge Annandale had on behalf of the other Judges asked for prayers from the Nation so that they could prepare a fair judgement in the matter.
“We appeal for prayers so that we can deliver a fair judgement”, said the Supreme Court Judge Annandale when presiding over the matter on the 25th March 2022.
It has been disclosed that while Judge Annandale was at home, on or around 31st March 2022, Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala allegedly directed one of the court officials to ask the Judge to return to work.
But now, one of the Supreme Court Judges told this publication that all of them prepared their judgement but there was too much interference in the matter hence their frustration.
“We prepared the judgement,but for now it is within our Judges books as drafts.A Judge’s book is where a Judge write the judgement before being typed, however, we had to meet first to discuss a few things before delivering it. During the meeting last week, we were told that the Crown want the matter to go back to court as they were documents that were not filed, that is when the disagreement erupted because we couldn’t understand why this was only communicated to one Judge. It is clear here after the Chief Justice met one of us, he wanted to know what was in our Judges books and after seeing the judgement, the Crown was advised to delay the delivery of the judgement,” said one of the Judges whose name cannot be revealed for ethical reasons.
The Judges who were presiding over the bail appeal of the pro-democracy MPs are Judge Jacobus Annandale, Judge Sabelo Matsebula and Judge Judith Currie.
Documentary evidence in our possession suggests that even before the commencement of the matter before the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala allegedly interfered with the independence of court when directing that Judge Annandale must write the judgement.
“You are directed to hear the matter on Friday 25th March 2022. The Honorable Justice JP Annandale will preside over the matter and further write the judgement. Any Judge is at liberty to write a dissenting judgement,” reads the directive signed by the Chief Justice.
It is alleged that after signing the directive, Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala subsequently interfered again with the independence of the Supreme Court by demanding to see the draft of the judgement.
Details of the judgement as contained in one of Judges books cannot be revealed for now to protect our sources within the bench.
A questionnaire was sent to Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala, however, he had not responded at the time of compiling this report.
The same questionnaire was then sent to Siphiwo Mabila, the Registrar of the Supreme Court, however the Registrar had not responded to our questions.
Reached for comments, Sicelo Mngomezulu, the South African Attorney representing the incarcerated pro-democracy Members of Parliament said their expectation was that Judges would act in a manner that was consistent with the Constitution.
“Our expectation is that Judges must act in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution and observe the 'rule of law'. In this regard I refer the Nation to the provisions of sections 141 and 142 of the Constitution,” said the lawyer representing the MPs.
The incarcerated pro-democracy MPs were arrested on the 25th July 2021after an order allegedly issued by King Mswati, they are facing politically motivated criminal charges.
King Mswati is an absolute Monarch with Executive, Judicial and Legislative powers.
Supreme Court Judge JP Annadale(pic: Times)