SWAZI MED CALLS FOR JUDGE JACOBUS ANNANDALE RECUSAL

MBABANE – It seems a day does not go by without the Swazi Med and Medscheme case taking a new twist.

Swazi Med has now filed an application for the recusal of Judge Jacobus Annandale, who is presiding over the matter. This latest application is preceded by applications to stop a meeting and arbitration. In its application for the recusal of the judge, Swazi Med alleged that the judge’s partiality was now in doubt.

This comes after the judge allegedly issued a mysterious and/or secret order in the matter. It was also the company’s submission that Judge Annandale was disqualified by his actions.

Swazi Med Principal Officer Peter Simelane stated that during the argument of the main matter (application to stop the shareholders meeting), the parties ventilated all issues including the dispute over what was resolved by the Board in its meeting of September 8, 2016. He pointed out that the parties argued fully, comprehensively and referred the court to legal authorities on how these issues were to be decided by the court.  He alleged that after hearing full arguments His Lordship postponed the matter to December 1, 2016 for purposes of delivering an ex tempore judgment at 2pm.

Simelane submitted that on December 1, 2016 at about 9:45am, he received a call from Swazi Med’s Attorney, Mangaliso Magagula, who informed him that he had received a call from the clerk of Judge Annandale informing him that he (judge) had issued an order in the matter for the production of the original book of minutes in which he (Simelane) recorded the Board meeting minutes of September 28, 2016.
According to Simelane, Magagula told him that he had been informed by the judge’s clerk that the order required him to appear before the judge at 11am on the same day with the applicants (Medscheme).

He said he was informed that this was for the purposes of inspecting the original book of the meeting in which he recorded the minutes.
Simelane alleged that Magagula informed him that he could not get much detail as he took the call from the judge’s clerk while he was in a meeting. Magagula is said to have promised to get back to the judge’s clerk to get more information about the Court Order.

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