lawyer not in court, supreme court judges displeased

MBABANE – Supreme Court judges were not pleased as lawyer Thabiso Fakudze did not appear at the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Fakudze was the appellant in the case where he seeks to rescind an order of court for the attachment of goods he had bought in a public auction. He had to appear in person and Sabela Dlamini represented the respondents.

Hhohho Deputy Sheriff, Silence Gamedze, lawyer Michael Masuku and Deputy Sheriff Melusi Qwabe were cited as the first, second and third respondents respectively. The case was heard by Supreme Court Judges, Dr Seth Twum, Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi and Emmanuel Agim.

Fakudze instructed Nosipho Mazibuko to stand in for him as he was reportedly not well after he was allegedly involved in a car accident recently. Mazibuko, however, did not have any further instructions other than to ask for the postponement of the matter to the next session of the Supreme Court in November.

The case of action which has led to the appeal arose from a public auction conducted by Qwabe in which Fakudze bought office furniture.

He allegedly paid with a cheque and when it was cashed, the cheque was dishonoured as there were insufficient funds.

Masuku then ran to court for an order dispossessing Fakudze of the furniture and he was granted a writ of execution. The writ was executed by Gamedze, to which execution Fakudze now appeals.

Mazibuko represented Fakudze before the appeal came to be heard. She was present during the roll-call of cases to be heard by the Supreme Court on May 2, 2012.

The roll-call was held by all the judges of the Supreme Court comprising of Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi, Judges Dr Seth Twum, Stanley Moore, Ahmed Ebrahim, Bheki Maphalala and Emmanuel Agim.

Mazibuko raised it with their Lordships on May 2 that Fakudze instructed her to ask for a postponement after he was allegedly involved in an accident and could not appear for the appeal.

Their Lordships told Mazibuko that they will not be accepting any postponements unless a written notice detailing the reasons for the explanation was filed with the Supreme Court.

They further advised Mazibuko to make any submissions relating to the case on the date the case was to be heard by the Supreme Court.

To their Lordship’s surprise, Mazibuko appeared before them to submit that she had no instructions from Fakudze.

"I have no instructions my Lords from my learned friend, but to ask for a postponement of the case to the next session of the Supreme Court," Mazibuko said.

She added that Dr Ozeogu had said Fakudze was not well and had issued a report to that effect. She did not have a copy of the report with her.

"The explanation is contemptuous to the court. I am surprised that you have the guts to tell us that you have been sent by Fakudze who is abusing court process," Judge Agim said.

"You should have told him that the court was adamant about this in the first instance," Dr Twum said.

Justice Twum told Mazibuko not to grieve herself as Fakudze had not given her the instructions to file the relevant papers.

　

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