AG’S OFFICE WANTS MASTER’S OFFICE PROBE TO CONTINUE

MBABANE – The application for a final order to stop the Parliament Select Committee investigating alleged gross maladministration, abuse of power and embezzlement of estate monies at the Office of the Master of the High Court is being met with resistance from the AG.

The Office of the Attorney General (AG), which is representing the Clerk to Parliament, Speaker of the House of Assembly and the Chairperson of the Parliament Select Committee, Sandla Fakudze, has since filed a notice of intention to oppose. The AG is still to file comprehensive papers outlining why it’s against  the confirmation of the  interim order stopping the Parliament Select Committee investigating alleged gross maladministration, abuse of power and embezzlement of estate monies at the Office of the Master of the High Court.

Interim

Last Friday, Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala and the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) obtained an interim order stopping the investigation by the Parliament Select Committee. The interim order interdicting the committee from investigating the Office of the Master of the High Court was issued after the chief justice and the JSC moved an urgent application against the clerk to Parliament. “It is the duty of all arms of government to respect and observe the independence of the Judiciary. The conduct of Parliament in this matter seeks to interfere with the operations of the master of the High Court without any legal basis,” contended the commission.

According to the chief justice and the JSC, Parliament has no power to enquire into the administrative and financial operations of the master of the High Court. “The Office of the Master of the High Court, under the Judiciary, in its administrative and financial administration, is independent from any organ of the kingdom, but only subject to the Constitution,” argued the chief justice and the JSC. The first applicant in the matter is the chief justice, while the second applicant is the JSC. In the application, the applicants (chief justice and the JSC) submitted that the Judiciary is one of the three arms of government which, in terms of the Constitution, in both its judicial and administrative functions, was independent and only subject to the Constitution. It was further their submission that the Office of the Master of the High Court was one of the offices under the Judiciary of Eswatini.

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