MBABANE: “Assistant Superintendent Bhekani Shiba and the Magistrate who issued an order to investigate the cell-phones of Good Shepherd Hospital nurses are violating the health workers’ right to privacy”.
These were the sentiments of a Judge who spoke to this journalist on Saturday shortly after seeing a court order where a Magistrate ordered the investigation of cellphones belonging to one Buhle Mabuza, an employee at Good Shepherd Hospital.
“I am not sure how you can approach it, maybe you can also contact lawyers bo-Nhlabatsi or Thulani for a comment, kutsi ngisuke ngamangala nangiyibona lendzaba. How can a Magistrate issue an exparte order? An exparte does not allow the other person to state his/her side of the story before an order could be issued. This is normally done on special cases, maybe someone is owing you money for a car and you suspect that the person can disappear with your property and sell it, that’s a good argument. But this is a different case, you can’t interfere with my rights and freedoms, privacy is one of the fundamental rights in the Constitution and you can’t just go to court for an order to access my cellphone. I must be given a chance to respond why I am against the order to access my cellphone and cite the Constitutional provisions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to justify and protect my right to privacy. That’s why, we have different cellphones, the 606 is for Government, the one I’m using to talk to you is mine, they must get an order first to access it. Even if they might wish to access it, they must give me enough time to respond hhayi kungituma. In this case, the police are abusing the powers of the courts because they know once they see the court order, the health workers will respect it and surrender their cellphones without questioning,” said the Judge whose name cannot be revealed for ethical reasons.
Assistant Superintendent Bhekani Shiba allegedly manipulated the Magistrate Court for an order to investigate the cellphone of Buhle Mabuza.
The police are looking for health workers who allegedly leaked information to this Swaziland News after the admission of the senior cop at Good Shepherd Hospital where he was being operated on his private parts.
The health insiders whose names cannot be revealed for ethical reasons told this publication that the senior cop might struggle to have sex after the operation, Shiba was operated on or around 31st May 2022.
The name of the Magistrate who is complicit to the violation of the health workers right to privacy through the court order will be revealed in due course.
A questionnaire was sent to Superintendent Phindile Vilakati, the Police Spokesperson, however, she had not responded at the time of compiling this report.
Reached for comments, human rights lawyer Sibusiso Nhlabatsi said the conduct of the police officer violated the health workers’ right to privacy.
“It’s a glaring violation of the health workers’ right to privacy. We must look at it in two ways, this is a medical matter, the mere fact that the police officer’s medical information was leaked does not mean he must violate the health workers right to privacy. The police officer was supposed to approach the Management of the health institution or take action against Good Shepherd. Now, it appears as if the officer is seeking to access the employees’ cellphones to substantiate the leak,” said the human rights lawyer.
A court order that violates health workers right to privacy.