BHUTANA QUALIFIES FOR SENATE RACE – COURT

MBABANE – Senate hopeful Bhutana Dlamini has won his case where he was challenging his disqualification as a candidate for the Senate race.

Bhutana wanted the court to declare that he qualified to stand for the Senate elections to replace the late Jimmy Hlophe, who had replaced Mike Temple, who also passed on. He also wanted the decision to disqualify him to be reviewed and set aside. The court yesterday ruled in his favour. Respondents in the matter were clerk to Parliament, the Speaker, Elections and Boundaries Commission,  Attorney General, Sifiso Dlamini and five others. In his judgment, Judge Nkosinathi Maseko said it was shocking that the Clerk to Parliament was aware as early as August 31, 2021 that Bhutana was owing the Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS) a minor debt of E668.20 and did not inform him, but went on to prepare ballot papers and unilaterally excluded him without affording him the opportunity to present his side of the story.

The court observed that on September 2, 2021, when the elections were due to be conducted, the applicant (Bhutana) and members of the House of Assembly made a shocking discovery that his name was not there.  When the clerk was asked on the spot why the applicant’s name had been excluded from the ballot papers, his response was that Bhutana had been disqualified and when asked why, he was unable to provide reasons. Judge Maseko further noted that Bhutana also requested for the reasons of  his disqualification and the clerk was not able to provide same to him. Owing to the failure of the clerk to provide the reasons to the MPs, the House in its wisdom, adjourned the elections.

The court said Bhutana was forced to launch these proceedings on September 9, 2021, to compel the first respondent (Clerk to Parliament) to provide reasons for his disqualification. The reasons were eventually provided to the applicant pursuant to a court order.  Judge Maseko said the clerk to parliament conducted himself in a dishonest manner, because in paragraph 11 of his answering affidavit, he stated under oath that ‘as at September 11, 2021, the applicant had not requested from me reasons for his disqualification’. “The statement by the clerk to parliament is untrue because the applicant requested for the reasons of his disqualification from the Senate Elections from him on September 2, 2021, the day of the elections and also on September 7, 2021 through his attorneys. As to why the first respondent decided to mislead the court in this matter leaves a lot to be desired,” said Judge Maseko.

Disqualifying

The judge further found that: “The conduct  of the first respondent in unilaterally  disqualifying the applicant from Senate Elections without informing him of the reasons for such disqualification, and the refusal to provide the reasons when requested to do so firstly, by the applicant, secondly by the House of Assembly and thirdly by the applicant’s attorneys, left the court with no alternative but to conclude that his (clerk of parliament) intention was to prevent the applicant from taking  part in the elections on September 2, 2021, however, the House of Assembly suspended the elections to enable the clerk to provide reasons why he unilaterally disqualified the applicant.” Judge Maseko further pointed out that it defeated logic why the clerk of parliament decided to verify Bhutana’s tax compliance status when the ERS itself had cleared the applicant to take part in the elections.   

It was further the court’s observation that even the correspondence of August 31, 2021, referred to the debt as a ‘minor debt’. The court wondered why the clerk of parliament did not disclose this debt to Bhutana on August 31, 2021, when he (clerk) received the information from the Eswatini Revenue Service on September 1, 2021, when he (Bhutana) and the House of Assembly requested for the reasons which caused him to unilaterally disqualify the applicant from taking part in the Senate Elections when he had been nominated by a majority vote of the House of Assembly.

“The answer to the above is known by the first respondent, however, what is true in the circumstances is that the applicant was not going to participate in the Senate Elections of September 2, 2021 if the Honourable Members of Parliament (House of Assembly) did not suspend the Senate Elections when the clerk failed to provide them with the reasons for such disqualification of the applicant,” reads part of the judgment. Bhutana was represented by Derrick Jele of Robinson Bertram. Assistant Attorney General Mndeni Vilakati and Principal Crown Counsel Ndabenhle Dlamini appeared for the respondents.

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