GOVT: CJ WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO RESIGN

An armed police officer seen at the entrance of the CJ’s guardhouse. (File pic)

MBABANE – Government has made it succinctly clear that Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi, who locked himself inside his house, will not be allowed to resign.
In fact, government says it will not accept his resignation.

This, after the CJ made certain demands, five in total, detailing why he was resisting arrest.
Part of the demands were that he should be taken straight to the Ngwenya Border Gate, enroute to South Africa, as the local police would then cease their power to arrest him.
Another demand is that he reaches a political settlement with government in that he will agree to step down as the CJ and leave the country.

His new demands come at a time when many people have been wondering why the CJ was not resigning and returning to his home country quietly.
However, government, through its Spokesperson Percy Simelane, said they would not allow such to happen.
In an interview yesterday, Simelane said there is no way he (CJ) could be allowed to just go.

“No! A thousand no. If you tender in your resignation, there is a chance that you will be allowed to go or it can be rejected. It’s not a one way stream but it depends on many circumstances. What I know is that there is no way he (CJ) can be allowed to just go. It’s important that he goes to answer for his (alleged) sins. As far as I know, the law does not state that you go to court to be locked up, but just to provide certain answers. The position of the law is that you ask through the law to be free, meaning government has no power to release him,” Simelane explained.

Simelane further mentioned that the CJ cannot negotiate with government for his freedom but has to negotiate with the law.
“He is a suspect. He is suspected to have broken the law, so he must face the law. He cannot ask government for his freedom. All government was doing was facilitating that his arrest does not get messy,” he explained.
On the issue of political settlement, Simelane said there was no leeway.

“The law has no political settlement. Our Constitution does not include political settlement in criminal cases. What is provided for is that when a person is a suspect, he is given an opportunity to prove himself and if the court finds him not guilty, he is allowed to go home. It would the first of its kind to see the court tackling political settlement issues,” Simelane said.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: