By Mduduzi Hlophe

MBABANE: Judge Jacobus Annandale, in a judgement that was allegedly influenced came hard on this publication when dismissing the bail appeal of the incarcerated pro-democracy Members of Parliament(MPs) Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube.

This comes after this Swaziland News  published a series of investigative articles exposing how Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala allegedly influenced the judgement to deny the pro-democracy MPs bail.

Evidence in our possession suggests that Judge Annandale wrote the judgement and subsequently handed it over to CJ Maphalala who ‘cooked’ it before being delivered on Thursday.

“To top it all, still in the process of drafting this judgement, we noted with grave concern that the social media(Swaziland News, 16 April 2022), driven from outside our jurisdiction, has severely scandalized this Court. Impropriety, collusion and judicial compromise is touted. Worse, equally unfounded allegations of division and undermining ethics by the members of this bench are also presented as the truth. His Lordship the Honorable Chief Justice is not spared either. Yellow journalism at its worst has not deterred this Court from exercising its constitutional, ethical and legal function without fear or favour, according to law,” reads the judgment in part.

On another note, Swaziland News editor Zweli Martin Dlamini advised all the Supreme Court judges handling the matter including Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala to instruct Attorney General Sifiso Khumalo to take this publication and the editor to the South African courts if they felt scandalized.

“It’s important to remind these Judges that they are not immune to public criticism and investigative journalism. Swaziland News is a legal personna, registered in South Africa, these Judges have a right to take us to court, maybe we can get a fair platform to expose the corruption within the judiciary, particularly the injustice against the incarcerated pro-democracy MPs. These Judges do not even deserve to be referred to as “Honorable Judges”, they are corrupt to the core and compromised.I am armed with both electronic and documentary evidence substantiating that the MPs Supreme Court judgement was cooked. Any brave Judge who believes we scandalized the court must file an application and challenge us to justify our investigative articles,”said the editor.

The editor said it remains a shame that a Judicial system could be headed by a corrupt Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala whose fraud and corruption scandals are well documented.