By Zweli Martin Dlamini

It is very unfortunate to note that,Supreme Court Judges opted to write about two hundred(200) pages condemning assassinated human rights lawyer Thulani Rudolf Maseko, the late former President of the People’s United Democratic Movement(PUDEMO) Mario Masuku and current President of the organization Mlungisi Makhanya among others.

The political activists and human rights defenders approached the High Court of eSwatini seeking an order declaring Section 11(1) and (2) of the Suppression of Terrorism Act unconstitutional, their main argument was based on the fact that,they were not given an opportunity to be heard before PUDEMO was declared a terrorist entity but, were subsequently affected by the decision.

Judge Mbutfo Mamba, concluded that the said Section of the Suppression of Terrorism Act(STA) “ is unconstitutional” but Government decided to appeal the High Court judgement that was threatening the existence of this cruel regime as the STA is used as an oppressive tool and to silence those calling for democracy.

The judgement delivered on Monday was not in the interest of justice, in fact, it is absurd or ridiculously unreasonable for the Supreme Court, being the highest court in the land,to conclude that,the mere fact that assassinated human rights lawyer Thulani Rudolf Maseko and other PUDEMO leaders were not afforded an opportunity to be heard before PUDEMO was declared a terrorist entity but ended-up being victims of the decision, does not undermine the provisions of the Constitution.

Fairness is the basic principle of justice,it was my first time to read a judgement where four(4) Supreme Court Judges concluded that, there’s nothing wrong with being affected or persecuted through a decision that was taken while your right to be heard was deliberately disregarded as if it does not exist.

In my view, Chief Justice(CJ) Bheki Maphalala and other Supreme Court Judges being Justice JM Van Der Walt, Justice JM Currie, Acting Justice MJ Manzini and Acting Justice LM Simelane colluded to write a judgment that is not only oppressive but amounts to a ‘piece of rubbish’.

No sane Judges could disregard the right to be heard being the basic right in the administration of justice and even go an extra mile, by including that in a written judgement, the judiciary has lost credibility and cannot be trusted anymore.

The moment a litigant addresses the court proving that, she/he was not afforded an opportunity to be heard before a decision that undermines his/her rights was taken, an independent minded Judge is obligated to take that submission into consideration.

But alas, we don’t have Judges in this country but we have corrupt judicial officers who, apart from selling justice, accounts to King Mswati, an absolute Monarch.

It is clear that, challenging Government in court is becoming a waste of time and despite the gross violation of human rights in this country, it’s been years since we had a judgment where an ordinary citizen successfully sued the State.

But in this case, the Judiciary opted to legitimize oppression and the Judges decided to condemn assassinated human rights lawyer Thulani Rudolf Maseko and the late former PUDEMO President Mario \'Bhambatha\' Masuku in their graves.

But we thank ex-PUDEMO President Mario \'Bhambatha\' Masuku, human rights lawyer Thulani Rudolf Maseko, PUDEMO President Mlungisi Makhanya and Deputy Secretary General(DSG) Maxwell Dlamini for challenging the Supression of Terrorism Act, Masuku and Maseko died fighting for justice and their efforts will not be in vain.

In conclusion, as I was reading this judgment,I remembered the words of one of the high regarded former eSwatini High Court Judges who was persecuted by the regime for being independent minded and delivering fair judgements.

The Judge had invited me for lunch in one of the restaurants in Mbabane, I asked him why he did not challenge his persecution with the courts and he said;

“I didn’t want to legitimize injustice”.

Clearly, approaching the eSwatini courts now amounts to legitimizing injustice because the captured and corrupt Judges will have an opportunity to write nonsensical judgements and manipulate the law to justify injustice against the poor and powerless citizens.