SERIOUS JUDICIAL CRISIS IN THE COUNTRY - HOWE

EZULWINI – “We have a serious judicial crisis in the Kingdom of Eswatini.” As if demonstrating how disappointed he was that key guests from the government sector were a no-show, Vice-President of the Law Society of Swaziland made the above statement as he closed the inaugural Rule of Law and Human Rights Lecture at the Happy Valley Hotel yesterday.

Before strongly criticising the state of the judiciary in the country, Howe poked fun at the ‘absent’ guests who included the Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala, Attorney General Sifiso Khumalo and Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Pholile Shakantu by acknowledging their presence.

Opportunity

“May I take this opportunity to thank the PM, AG, DPP and the others for gracing our event especially after they requested that it be postponed to today so that they could attend,” he said, something which threw the guests in stitches of laughter.

According to the programme of the day, Shakantu was supposed to introduce the PM as part of the official opening and the latter was expected to address the gathering.

On the other hand, the AG, DPP and CJ formed part of the special guest list.
It could not be ascertained if they had actually confirmed attendance.
Worth noting was that none of the attendants attested to having been sent to represent the four.

After mocking them, Howe went on to detail some of the challenges that were faced by his organisation and the overall judicial system of the country.
“We have a serious judicial crisis in this country. If you think you will just wake up to go and work on a case without fear or favour then you do not live in the Kingdom of Eswatini,” he said.

His statement was more of a response to questions that were posed by some of the participants who demanded to know why the society was letting down the citizens of this country.
Howe stated that the organisation was fully committed to ensuring human rights for all citizens but that there were many ‘bread and butter’ problems in the country.

He recounted that five years ago, the then Prime Minister, Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini gave assurance that he would ensure that the Human Rights Bill would be one of his priorities in Parliament but never did anything about it.
“He had just been sworn in and was declaring his assets when he said it was going to be the first Bill he would work on. Fast forward to now, I have not seen it yet the Constitution provides its enactment,” said Howe.

With the lecture focused on human rights, Howe went on and expressed his disappointment at the manner in which the Human Rights and Public Administration Commission was not given the resources to conduct its work.

“The organisation is not funded which is why it cannot fully deal with litigation for the country’s citizens,” he said.
As part of the lecture, it was explained to the attendants that lawyers were expected to be a symbol of change and development instead of focusing on making money.

Delivering a keynote address, Justice of the High Court of the Republic of South Africa, Gauteng Division, Jody Kollapen highlighted that there were two institutions that were critical to ensure that the rule of law was upheld. “These are the role of the judiciary and the integrity of the judges. Judges do not act in isolation and have an enormous responsibility to act with good integrity,” he said.

He said it had become a norm that access to justice was now determined by how much resources citizens had.
“Unless you have the resources, access to justice becomes a commodity. For the poor, any hope of getting access becomes elusive,” he said.
After the lecture, the plenary session took place where the attendants were given the chance to pose questions, make suggestions and or raise concerns.

Concerns

One of the concerns raised was that most citizens of the country were affected by the fact that there was a dual system which led to a situation where they were told that their cases could only be dealt with in traditional structures.

Raising the concern was Attorney Sibusiso Nhlabatsi who wondered if the dual system was still applicable in the 21st Century.
Indigenous expert Joy Ndwandwe also got a chance to share her views where she raised a concern that something needed to be done to ensure that people in the rural areas had access to justice.

Also making his voice heard was political analyst Musa Hlophe who posed a question to law enforcers by asking if the citizens were asking for too much whenever they sought justice.

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