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Shylock and lawyers blow whistle on deputy sheriffs

21/06/2010 00:00:00 TIMOTHY SIMELANE

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MBABANE – Some deputy sheriffs have been exposed for wayward conduct.

This was cited as reasons for their dismissal by the Registrar of the High Court Lorraine Hlophe who is also the Sheriff of Swaziland.

It can be revealed that there are about 60 complaints raised by members of the public against uncouth deputy sheriffs despite only having been in office for just over a year.

Of the 23 deputy sheriffs, 15 have attracted numerous complaints because of alleged unprofessional conduct.

In one case, a deputy sheriff admitted to having sold goods by public auction and kept the money for himself. When questioned, he is said to have pleaded with the lawyers of the bank which had won a court order against him to bear with him, promising to pay them back from his own resources.

In a complaint against one of the deputy sheriffs, attorneys Cloete, Henwood, Dlamini, Magagula wrote: "We have been advised by the defendant, against whom we had issued a writ in the matter through its Managing Director Mr Terrance Mabila, that he paid to the deputy sheriff the sum of E15 000 about four weeks ago. The deputy sheriff has admitted to having received this money but apparently he said he has used it and he is going to sell his motor vehicle to pay our client.

"In our view, this is unethical conduct. We do not expect a deputy sheriff to use monies that he collects on behalf of our client for his personal use. Kindly do the necessary to reprimand or correct this conduct.

Sheriff Hlophe was equally baffled by this, and she commented in an interview: "This is very wrong because a deputy sheriff is not supposed to use even a cent of the money gathered from the auction sale."

A money lender, Mphenga Jele was owed E1 700 by a debtor in Bhunya and the money was supposed to be returned with interest. He asked a deputy sheriff to help him recover the debt and the deputy sheriff obliged and fetched the E1 700 from the debtor. However, the deputy sheriff later asked Jele to loan him E1 000, which Jele agreed to. Jele later complained to sheriff Hlophe that the deputy sheriff had since vanished with the E1 000 and had not paid him back.

"Besides, I had also asked him to fetch the interest of the E1 700 and he promised to do so but did not return to me. I ask the court to deal with this deputy sheriff so that I can also get my interest back," said Jele in a letter to Sheriff Hlophe.

Heartless!, cries Justice Masuku

MBABANE – High Court Judge Justice Masuku found one of the deputy sheriffs to be heartless and lacking in professionalism.

This was in a dispute between William Andrew Bonham as applicant and Master Hardware PTY (LTD) who was first respondent. Deputy Sheriff Bheki Mavuso was second respondent.

In the case in question, a Honda Civic belonging to Bonham was repossessed by deputy sheriff Mavuso who was acting on behalf of Master Hardware in 2008. Though Mavuso was informed that the car belonged to Bonham and not Ryan Moyes Nevil, who was the one allegedly owing Master Hardware, he proceeded to attach it. Mavuso also proceeded to sell it by public auction despite being informed that the car did not belong to the person who owed Master Hardware.

When delivering his judgement, Justice Masuku was appalled at the conduct of the deputy sheriff and recommended that he be dealt with by the sheriff.

In this matter, Mavuso was allegedly acting on instructions from attorneys Sipho Matse and Company.

The judge said, "I view the conduct of the deputy sheriff in a most serious light. The heartlessness and the removal of reasoning from its seat in dealing with this matter by both the aforesaid attorneys and the deputy sheriff was astounding and in my view borders on unprofessional conduct by the aforesaid parties, who it must not be forgotten are officers of this court. It is ghastly to contemplate that the machinery of this court is being abused by this court’s very officers to literally supplant property from possessors or even owners with little or no regard for the evidence in their possession which may inexorably tend to suggest that the property should not be attached and certainly should not be sold in execution."

Deputy Sheriff responds: Some lawyers owe us

MBABANE – Deputy Sheriff Bheki Mavuso says he is able to respond to all the complaints raised against him.

Mavuso, in an interview, said some of the lawyers and a bank owed him large sums of money, yet they kept demanding money from him.

He said on average he was making over E30 000 per month.

"But for over a year now I have been unemployed, and have been struggling to make ends meet."

"I did answer most of the questions raised and can still answer all those remaining. The sheriff called me recently to say that I should respond to the outstanding complaints and I told her that I was able to."

However, Mavuso said he would have to seek council from his lawyers on how to respond to the complaints because he did not know the motive of the sheriff – to query him about his work after all this time. "When a sheriff is on duty, it is obvious that the people will not take kindly to his visit. They then tend to make complaints against the sheriff as if he had invaded their homes on a personal errand. But I know my job and will answer all the people who raised concerns about my conduct," he said. When questions were asked about the specific complaints raised against him, he opted not to respond saying he would have to answer to the sheriff first.

Comments

This is just a tip on the iceberg! The entire justice system is rotten! How did government win the appeal case against exminers on free education!People have nothing! Their money is deducted from their salary without their concern.Civil Servants pocket nothing at the end of the month and the shylocks in Microlenders win cases against innocent citizens. Why is government robbing citizens in broad day light. In my opinion these Shylocks are in bed with Government. They enact a law and then assist shylocks in robbing citizens. This is a sick regime and it must go yesterday! These sherrifs must be dealt with. How can they rob innocent Swazis.
June 21, 2010, 3:47 pm, velaphi dlamini (d.velaphi@yahoo.com)