OVER 1 000 CASES IDLE AT INDUSTRIAL COURT

MBABANE – Slightly over 1 000 cases lie idle at the Industrial Court of Eswatini and their status is unknown.

From 2013 to date, 1 002 cases are outstanding at the Industrial Court of Eswatini. As a result, the Registrar of the Industrial Court, Sithembile Simelane, has issued a minute inviting legal practitioners and litigants to indicate among the listed cases the ones that have been settled mutually or those that are no longer proceeding. The minute, which was issued on July 4, 2022, was addressed to all legal practitioners, litigants and any other concerened party.
The cases comprise constructive dismissal, unfair termination of contract, unfair labour practice, workmen’s compensation and unlawful deduction of salaries matters. Others are unpaid wages, automatic dismissal, unpaid teminaition of benefits, breach of contract, salary arrears and underpayment of salaries cases.

The year with the most outstanding cases, 164, is 2021. The year 2018 has the second most outstanding cases with 146. In 2020, there were 143 cases and 96 in 2014. The least number of outstanding cases, 59, were registered in 2019 and the second least number of cases, were registered in 2015, and they are 66. During the opening of the 2019 Legal Year, before COVID-19 hit Eswatini, Chief Justice (CJ) Bheki Maphalala said despite the challenges faced by the judiciary, they were determined to execute their mandate as required by the Constitution. At the time Maphalala stated that government would hopefully support the efforts of the Judiciary to execute its constitutional mandate. The CJ said the statistics of new and pending cases, which ran into thousands, within the Judiciary, were very high and the underlying cause of the backlog of cases was the shortage of courts and judges, among others.

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