MBABANE: Judge Sabelo Masuku,the then Commissioner of the Eswatini Human Rights Commission and Public Administration allegedly facilitated a corrupt payment for African Drums Events Management(Pty)Ltd.
Documents sourced from the ACC investigators suggest that, African Drums Events Management was investigated by the Anti Corruption Commission(ACC) for allegedly defrauding Government over R15million and as reported by this Swaziland News earlier on Monday, the company allegedly colluded with Sizakele Dlamini, the Principal Secretary(PS) in the Ministry of Finance when submitting the alleged fraudulent invoices.
The investigators who submitted the documents to this investigative journalist alleged that, the Judge abused his powers as the then Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission and claimed to be representing the company and its Directors as his clients.
“After detecting that the company has submitted the fraudulent invoices we stopped the outstanding payments but PS Sizakele Dlamini and the Judge then spoke to our Commissioner Dan Dlamini, we were then told to drop the investigation and the payment was processed. Worth-noting, the company had already been paid some of the invoices and we tried to stop the outstanding payments based on the corruption allegations that were under investigation.In one of the meetings with the Judge where he claimed to be a lawyer for the company, we had even applied for warrants of arrest but the case was sabotaged. So in this case, the State lost over R15million in a corruption matter that was detected and even after we tried to stop and prevent the loss of more public funds,we were sabotaged”,said one of the ACC investigators in a virtual with this journalist on Sunday evening.
Indeed,the documents in possession of this publication further suggest that, the ACC tried to apply for warrants of arrest against the PS in the Ministry of Finance who was Accused number three(3),African Drums Events Management(Pty) Ltd(Accused number one(1) and it’s Director Marina Henwood(Accused number two(2) among others.
The company allegedly defrauded Government after providing decoration and other services to the Office of the Prime Minister(PM) on or around 31st October 2019.
A questionnaire was sent to Judge Sabelo Masuku,however,he had not responded at the time of compiling this report while ACC Spokesperson Jabu Phakathi declined to comment.
Reached for comments earlier on Monday morning, eSwatini highly regarded human rights lawyer Sibusiso Nhlabatsi said, the Anti Corruption Commission(ACC) was established with a specific mandate to fight corruption and if it fails to fulfill that mandate, then it “is as good as non-existent”.
The lawyer further said, it’s unfortunate to learn that investigators of the ACC are accepting bribes adding that, investigators of such institutions must be above reproach.
“The ACC must be independent just like the Judiciary and Human Rights Commission because it was established for a specific goal,to fight and combat corruption. If the ACC cannot discharge that mandate, that would mean it as good as non-existent. It’s a pity that allegations suggesting that, investigators of the ACC are taking bribes because we expect that the organization should be dominated by people whose integrity is above board and with dignity. It defeats the whole purpose of the prevention of crime act if the people who work for the ACC are bribe-able”, said the human rights lawyer.
A questionnaire was sent to Sizakele Dlamini, the Principal Secretary(PS) in the Ministry of Finance,however, she had not responded at the time of compiling this report and, efforts to reach the Directors of African Drums Events Management proved unsuccessful at the time of compiling this report.
But Sivumelwano Nyembe,the Spokesperson of the pro-democracy MultiStakeholder Forum(MSF) said, apart from the bribery allegations, it was hard for the ACC to be fully operational because the law “is applied selectively” in the country.
“Apart from the bribery allegations involving investigators of the Anti Corruption Commission(ACC), we need to understand that, it’s hard for the whole institution to be fully operational because the law is applied selectively in the country”, said the
Judge Sabelo Masuku(supplied).