By Musa Mdluli

MBABANE:Zweli Martin Dlamini,the editor of this Swaziland News has won the Mpumalanga High Court defamation case against King Mswati and his eSwatini undemocratic Government.

This comes after the King and his Government took the editor to court demanding seven(7) days before responding to questionnaires, while claiming that Dlamini was consistently publishing defamatory articles against the Monarchy and the Government.

The editor through his South African Senior Advocate Myron Dewrance vigorously defended the matter,saying the articles were of vital public interest and that, seven(7) before responding to questionnaires will delay the dissemination of information and that, the application was meant to systematically silence the publication as the independent voice of the eSwatini people.

On Friday, Acting Mpumalanga High Court Judge Johannes Hendrickus Roelofse dismissed the King’s application with costs.

“In the premises, I made the following order: The application is dismissed. The applicant is ordered to pay the first and second respondents’ costs including the consequent upon the employment of Senior Consel to be taxed in accordance with Scale C as contemplated in sub-rule(3) of the Uniform Rule 67A”, reads the order in part.

Reacting to the judgment, Swaziland News editor Zweli Martin Dlamini welcomed the judgement adding that the costs might be serious money as the case was only meant to frustrate him from doing his journalism work and wasted his time.

“The judgement speaks about my costs, the Swaziland News costs including the costs of a Senior Counsel.I spent a lot of time on this case that was merely to undermine access to information, you can’t have a Government with a Circular saying “we won’t respond to a terrorist” and then on the other hand, take the very same publication and editor to court over genuine articles or public interest, saying they want to respond.All this efforts ‘declaring a journalist and a publication as a terrorist’ after running to court was meant to destroy the publication, they were attacking from all angles. The legal team invested a lot of time, so I have told the lawyers to take time and calculate the costs,I need serious money from this cruel Government for wasting my time.They thought I won’t have the capacity to give a fight.I thank the legal team for winning this case but above all I thank God, it’s a miracle to be persecuted in this manner but win cases against a cruel Government and a King”, said the editor.