Times Of Swaziland: GOVT TAKEN TO COURT OVER PETITIONS DELIVERY BAN

GOVT TAKEN TO COURT OVER PETITIONS DELIVERY BAN
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BY KWANELE DLAMINI on 12/07/2021 08:32:00


MBABANE - Members of the community under Lobamba Lomdzala Constituency have
taken government to court over the ban on delivery of petitions to tinkhundla
centres.
They want the court to declare the directive stopping with immediate effect the
delivery of petitions to Members of Parliament (MPs) at constituency centres
that was announced by Acting Prime Minister (PM) Themba Masuku on June 24, 2021,
to be unlawful and of no force and effect. They also seek an order from the High
Court interdicting and restraining security forces under government’s
authority, and anyone acting at their behest, from disturbing or preventing them
or any person from delivering a written petition to their relevant Member of
Parliament (MP).
Applicants
Applicants in the matter are Nathi Dlamini, who is in the money lending
business, Azi Comfort Hlatshwako, a lawyer, and Mandla Dladla, who is also
self-employed in the informal sector. They are all members of the community
under Lobamba Lomdzala Royal Kraal. They said they went to court because they
were affected by the directive banning the delivery of petitions to tinkhundla
centres. In their papers, they blamed the directive stopping the delivery of
petitions to tinkhundla centres for the riots that they alleged resulted in a
number of deaths unprecedented in the country. They informed the court that it
would be in the interest of the country to allow them to deliver the petition to
their MP Marwick Khumalo. “It need hardly be stressed that the whole country
has experienced unprecedented spates of violent protests that have even caught
the attention of the international community as a result of the first
respondent’s (government) directive of June 24, 2021,” they said.
“Once the directive is declared unlawful, all other tinkhundla will be at
liberty to deliver their own written petitions peacefully,” they argued. The
applicants told the court that government would suffer no prejudice by having
the directive declared unlawful and set aside.
Decentralisation
They described an inkhundla as a local authority area inspired by
decentralisation of State power and as an engine of development through which
social services to the Eswatini community were developed. Nathi said tinkhundla
centres were recognised by Section 80 of the Constitution and that the political
system of Eswatini was exclusively modelled on the Tinkhundla System of
Government. He told the court that the acting PM’s directive was
discriminatory in nature in that it was allegedly directed to those seeking to
deliver petitions to their respective tinkhundla centres. “It excluded other
groups, be it religious or recreational gatherings. The Constitution is against
any form of discrimination,” Nathi said. He told the court that on July 3,
2021, together with other members of the community under Lobamba Lomdzala
Constituency, they assembled at Mahlanya Sports Ground to deliver a petition of
their demands to their MP, Khumalo.