BACEDE’S BROTHER SAVES DAY AFTER WIVES BLOCKED

MBABANE - Warders who were deployed at the High Court yesterday made it clear that no one would be allowed to interact with the incarcerated Members of Parliament (MPs) anyhow since the legislators were under their custody.

As a result, the law enforcement agents made sure that no one was allowed into the courtroom before the start of the matter. Only lawyers were allowed into the courtroom. Photographers were also requested to leave the courtroom.  Asked why photographers were ordered to leave their work space, the warders stated that they were fixing certain issues. “Kukhona lokusalungiswa, sicela niphume, nitawungena nakungena lijaji,” they said, loosely translated to: “please go out you will return to the court upon the arrival of the judge.”

Pictures

Worth noting is that ethics governing court reporting frown upon taking of pictures while court is in session. When that was put to the warders, they stated that they were fully aware that journalists were governed by certain policies as they executed their duties. However, they stated that things had changed from what they used to be. “In short, we are saying things have changed from what you know due to security reasons. We have beefed-up our security and one of the requirements is that no one should be allowed into the courtroom before the arrival of the judge,” they said. However, the photographers were finally allowed entry on condition that they would take a few pictures and leave. The same principle applied to the MPs’ relatives including Bacede’s wives.

The wives were blocked from entering the courtroom until the arrival of Bacede’s brother Bheki. The wives remained outside from as early as 11:15am. One of the warders seemed touched when she learnt that the wives had remained outside for so long and she engaged with the superiors. When Bheki arrived, he told the security personnel that he would rather also remain outside than leave their other relatives outside the courtroom. At the time, the police officers deployed there were going through the old lists which did not have the names of the other relatives. The lists were prepared by the two families sometime ago.  The relatives were all allowed entry after a brief discussion. Meanwhile, there was heavy police presence despite the less number of the MPs’ supporters at the High Court yesterday. Some of the officers of the law were not in uniform.

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