SUSPENDED LAWYER WANTS CJ REMOVED

MBABANE – Suspended lawyer Siboniso Clement Dlamini has filed an application for the convening and sitting of an ad hoc committee to consider the suspension and subsequent removal of Chief Justice (CJ) Bheki Maphalala.

Dlamini is accusing the head of the Judiciary of serious misbehaviour and misconduct.
According to Section  158(10) of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini, an ad hoc committee is a committee made up of the minister responsible for justice, chairman of the Civil Service Commission(CSC) and the president of the Law Society of Swaziland.

damaging

“The chief justice has committed gross violation of the Constitution by his conduct, such that it is glaring to all and damaging to the reputation of the Judiciary and the rule of law,” alleged Dlamini.

He is seeking an order directing the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, as chairman of the ad hoc committee in terms of Section 158(10) of the Constitution, to forthwith and immediately within 72 hours, convene a sitting of the committee, to consider and implement the decision on his complainant on the question of removing the CJ in terms of Section 158(2), for alleged serious misbehaviour and misconduct.

Section 158(2) provides that: “a Justice of a superior court of judicature shall not be removed from office except for stated serious misbehaviour or inability to perform the functions of office arising from infirmity of body.”

urgency

In his application which has been filed under a certificate of urgency, Dlamini is further seeking an order calling upon the minister, president of the Law Society of Swaziland and the chairman of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), to show cause why the meeting had not been convened in terms of Section 158 of the Constitution.

Respondents in the matter are the minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, president of the Law Society of Swaziland and the chairman of the Civil Service Commission

Dlamini averred that the CJ allegedly without lawful authority, proceeded to issue a general notice to all members of the Judiciary including the Law Society and judges, debarring him. He claimed that the CJ also directed that he (Dlamini) should not appear in all courts in the Kingdom of Eswatini.

He submitted that the letter by the chief justice purported to exercise powers vested in him in terms of Section 139 (5) and 142 of the Constitution.  Dlamini contended that these sections did not grant the head of the Judiciary the right or authority to bar practitioners in the Kingdom of Eswatini. According to the applicant (Dlamini), the law regulating lawyers was the Legal Practitioners Act.

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