PUDEMO MAN’S SEDITION CHARGE WITHDRAWN

MBABANE – The Crown has withdrawn the sedition charge against Political Activist Goodwill Sibiya.

Sibiya is the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) member, who was arrested after he filed an affidavit at the High Court in which he challenged the King, who he wanted to be incarcerated.

In terms of the withdrawn charge, the political activist was accused of unlawfully attesting to an affidavit containing falsehood with the intention to bring hatred, contempt or to incite disaffection against the person of His Majesty the King.
He was alleged to have contravened Section 31 (1) (a) of the Sedition and Subversive Activities Act 46 of 1938. Sibiya allegedly committed the offence on January 21, 2019 in Nhlangano.

The Crown withdrew the charge yesterday before High Court Judge Nkosinathi Maseko, without stating its reasons for doing so. Sibiya was initially charged with two counts. 
He is now faced with the charge of allegedly Contravening Section 19 (1) of the Suppression of Terrorism Act of 2008.

Terrorist

In terms of this count, the political activist is alleged to have unlawfully professed to be a member of terrorist groups, PUDEMO, Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS) and Economic Freedom Guerrillas. 
He is currently awaiting judgment on the Crown’s application that he be taken for mental evaluation.

Sibiya failed in his bid to have the charges against him quashed after Judge Maseko dismissed his application to that effect. His argument was that the State decided to prosecute him on the basis of a section of law that was set aside by the court.
Sibiya, whose trial has already begun, contended that a full bench of the court, by a majority of two to one, declared the section to be unlawful by judgment handed down on September 16, 2016.  This was in the matter in which Human Rights lawyer Thulani Maseko, who represents him in his present matter and three others, successfully challenged the Act.

The court declared some of the sections of the Act to be unconstitutional. Government, however, appealed against the judgment and the matter is still pending in the Supreme Court. The appeal has stalled because there are not enough Supreme Court judges to constitute the bench to deal with it. There are seven judges in the Supreme Court and a majority of them have dealt with the matter one way or the other.  This resulted in the case being postponed until sufficient judges were available to hear the matter and the representatives of the parties will be advised accordingly, according to the chief justice (CJ).

Advertise

The Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala decried that Judicial Service Commission (JSC) cannot create and advertise posts in the Judiciary.
“We have a situation where, unlike in other jurisdictions, Commissions have the power to create posts and proceed to advertise those posts, but we have to go to the Ministry of Public Service and beg for posts.

“As the Judiciary, we consider ourselves to be one of the three arms of government and as such we should be in a position to enjoy that autonomy of being one of the branches of government,” said the chief justice.

He said it was unfortunate that the JSC still had to go to the Executive to beg for posts. The CJ mentioned that the previous government never gave them posts and they had renewed their request with the present government.

The CJ also highlighted that the terrorism case was one of many which were pending because the bench could not be constituted for one or more reasons. He noted that this defeated the purpose of a fast and speedy resolution of cases.

Backlog

This situation, according to Maphalala resulted in the appointment of acting judges. The CJ said this was not done out of an admiration for acting judges but because the backlog of cases was increasing.
Maphalala said the Judiciary was not getting the support it should be getting in terms of being given judicial posts. He implored government to recognize the Judiciary as an important arm of government.

The affidavit which Sibiya filed at the High Court was stamped and commissioned the Nhlangano Police Station. Sibiya later took the affidavit to the High Court for filing and had it served to the attorney general.

According to Nhlangano Police Station Desk Officer Sydwell Mthembu, the police received information that Sibiya had some documents in his house that brought hatred and excite disaffection against the King.

Mthembu said he then applied for a search warrant and an order to take any seditious documents.  He pointed out that the warrant was issued on May 24, 2019 and executed the same day. He stated that he received information that Sibiya had some documents in his house that brought hatred and excite disaffection against the King.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: