GOVT TAKEN TO COURT OVER PETITIONS DELIVERY BAN

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.

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