NO LEGAL INSTRUMENT OF SUSPENSION – MPENDULO

MBABANE – Judge Mpendulo Simelane has alleged that His Majesty the King never suspended him.

Through his attorney Sipho Simelane the judge, who is on suspension, told the court that he read in newspapers that he had been suspended.
Simelane (Sipho) yesterday told the commission that his client did not have a legal instrument at hand and neither is he aware of a legal notice for his suspension.

This prompted the chairman of the commission, Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala, to ask what Sipho meant by saying his client had not been suspended. Simelane made an example of former High Court Judge Thomas Masuku and Michael Ramodibedi.
He said there was an instrument which suspended the two.

“My client is not in receipt of a letter of suspension,” Sipho told the commission.  Sipho said this when he raised points of law where he disputed that there was a legal instrument suspending Judge Simelane and that his matter was referred to the JSC by the King for investigation. The attorney further said as things stood, the commission does not have jurisdiction to hear the inquiry since it is allegedly not properly constituted.

The chief justice asked why the judge never asked for the legal notice of his suspension when he required to be furnished with further particulars at the start of the hearing.

Sipho said at the time they were not dealing with the issue of suspension. Zweli Jele who has been appointed by the JSC to prosecute in the matter, questioned that if Judge Simelane contended being formally suspended, then why was he not at work? The JSC is the initiator of the proceedings.

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