MOB JUSTICE, MURDER, SODV CASES ON THE RISE – CJ

MBABANE – “Cases of rape, mob justice, murder, rape and those under SODV are now on the rise.”

This was said by Chief Justice (CJ) Bheki Maphalala yesterday when congratulating the four new permanent judges of the High Court.  Lizinga lemacala emob justice ayangekunyuka, siyawabona kanye nalowo emurder, SODV ne rape lizinga lisetulu kakhulu,” said the chief justice in vernacular. He said they believed that the appointment of the four judges would reduce the backlog of cases. His Majesty King Mswati III has appointed three senior lawyers and a UNESWA law lecturer as permanent judges of the High Court. The senior attorneys are Zonke Magagula, Bonginkhosi Magagula, Bongani Sydney Dlamini along with law lecturer at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) Khontaphi Manzini, they were yesterday sworn-in by the CJ.

Dlamini, who is a member of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), and Manzini were also part time commissioners at the Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CMAC). Manzini is the wife of senior Lawyer Jack Mabandla Manzini, who is an Acting Judge of the Supreme Court. The two other judges (Judges Zonke and Bonginkhosi) were running private law firms and were on diverse occasions appointed as acting judges of the High Court. The CJ wished the four judges the best. Maphalala said some of the new judges would be deployed to the newly-established Commercial Court. According to the CJ, the Commercial Court would start working probably next week as all was now in place, including support staff and equipment.

Disputes

The Commercial Court will deal with all types of business disputes, including breach of contract, tort, property, trust and probate, IT disputes, judicial review, corporate mergers, global restructuring, insurance portfolio transfers, international swaps and derivatives or other investment disputes and intellectual property. The Investor Road map Unit in 2015 said although the country had improved in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business 2016, there were areas where Eswatini was not performing well, for instance, enforcing contracts. It has been reliably gathered that the Commercial Court will be housed at the Royal Science Technology Park, which is situated at Nokwane.

Matters enrolled at the Commercial Court are less likely to be postponed on the date of the actual hearing since there are various steps in place to ensure that matters are ready for trial, including case management and holding frequent pre-trial conferences. The Commercial Court will be a division of the High Court of Eswatini and vested with jurisdiction to hear and determine commercial disputes. He further pointed that the court would utilise and be guided by High Court rules in so far as the rules were not inconsistent with the practice directive.
“The mandate of the Commercial Court is to promote the expeditious and efficient resolution of commercial dispute,” said CJ Maphalala. He further pointed out that the registrar of the High Court would allocate commercial cases to the judges of the Commercial Court after due consultation with him (CJ).  

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