E50m case goes to court

The case will be heard at the High Court on Friday.

This directive was issued by the High Court in a letter addressed to all the suspects yesterday.

In their letter addressed to the Commission and signed by the former Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Musa Fakudze, they asked the Commission to intervene as they were denied justice by the country’s Judiciary. The accused were arrested in January 2007 and the case has since not been heard.

The suspects are currently out on E50 000 bail.

They were arrested following recommendations of a Commission of Inquiry on the use of the E50 million Capacity Building Fund led by the late lawyer Thulani Masina.

In the letter, Fakudze complained that the delay in having the matter determined was a flagrant violation to the suspects’ rights. She said the Constitution (Section 21) stipulated that an accused person has a right to a speedy, fair and just trial.

She also said the suspects’ lawyers had time and again approached the Registrar of the High Court Mpendulo Simelane persuading him to expedite the process of having the matter determined, to no avail.

The Human Rights and integrity Commission in turn wrote to the Chief Justice, Michael Ramodibedi and demanded answers to the allegations.

According to the Swazi News, the Commission requested Ramodibedi to attend to the matter since the suspects’ rights to a speedy hearing and finalisation of their case, as stipulated in the Constitution, was being violated.

In the letter the Chief Justice informs all the suspects that the case will be heard on Friday at 9:30am at the High Court. He further advised them to ensure that they were legally represented because the case was determined to proceed at all costs.

When reached for comment, the Registrar of the High Court, Mpendulo Simelane, confirmed that the matter will be heard on the said date. However, Simelane denied that the allocation of the matter had anything to do with the letter that was written to the Chief Justice by the Commission.

"It is not like we were under pressure, we had actually allocated this date to the case," Simelane said.

The retired Registrar of the Examinations Council of Swaziland, Dr Ben Dlamini who is also one of the suspects in the case, will have no rest as this case will be heard after his cannabis matter which will be heard today and tomorrow by a full bench of the Constitutional Court.

Comments

Lies its all lies yini Mpendulo? What a coincidence yini nibhalelwe bese licala liyangena nawvumile kunani. Lamanga vele kuphilwa ngawo. Kuhlalwa mabomu etikwetindzaba tebantfu kutsenjwe lamanga. Lawa ayisthrough khohlwa syawona sihlale siwabona.d
Jun 13, 2012, 5:45 AM, M.M.Zondo (aac3@gmail)

We will be watching this case very closely. It's hard to get justice in this country and I suspect it's even worse when the people who're supposed to give you justice have been forced to do so by the HRC. All I can say is that gov't has never lost a case in the past 4 years. I hope 'special' Swazi judges will not be involved here because we need very independent judges to hear the case, and the independent Swazi judges are known by everyone in this country, hence I won't mention them by name. I am yet to hear of government losing a court case in this lifetime,,,
Jun 13, 2012, 5:45 AM, For Justice (forjus@gmail.com)

Akubuye lemali yesive!!
Jun 13, 2012, 11:11 AM, Nosihle (muphonix.g@hotmail.com)

Thank you HRC, i guess you will soon be hearing from the Industrial Court litigants, who have to wait for ages for the commencement of their trials, only to find that their fly by night employers have since closed shop or died. Please hire more judges at the Industrial Court, even on an acting basis in the least.
Jun 13, 2012, 2:01 PM, NST (thwalans@gmail.com)

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