ATTORNEY GENERAL: PM’S STATEMENT ON AG’S OFFICE PERSONAL OPINION

LOBAMBA - The attorney general says Prime Minister (PM) Russell Dlamini’s statement, doubting the competence of the Auditor General’s Office, was his personal opinion and should not interfere with Parliament business.

The Attorney General, Sifiso Khumalo, said the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which suspended its sittings last Friday, could resume its work, unflinchingly, as the PM’s statement could not be cited as an impediment. The PM was addressing the Editors’ Forum of Eswatini and government officials last Thursday, when he said certain events pointed to incompetence at the Auditor General’s (AG) Office and further said there was doubt if his reports could be relied upon.

Statement

The attorney general, who is also an ex-officio member of the House of Assembly, yesterday told the House, during a sitting, that the PAC shall resume its sittings. He said any statement made by the PM or Cabinet minister should not affect the operation of Parliament. Khumalo stated that the PM did not have power over Parliament. The attorney general said the suspension of the PAC sittings was inappropriate. He said this after the Chairperson of the PAC and Deputy Speaker, Madala Mhlanga, rose on a point of clarification, where he told the House that he needed to clarify and shed light following the events of the past few days.

Last Thursday, the PM questioned the competence of the auditor general’s reports. On Friday morning, Mhlanga announced that following ‘the dark cloud’ that was hanging over the Auditor General, Timothy Matsebula, and his office, which was prompted by the PM’s statement, the sittings were suspended. He noted that the PAC’s work was based on the audit queries that were raised in the audit reports that were produced by the Auditor General’s Office. Therefore, if there were questions about the competence of the reports, the PAC had to suspend sittings, pending advice from the attorney general.

“Last week, PAC sittings were suspended as the committee was taken aback by a statement that was made about an office that we work closely with -  the Auditor General’s Office. We suspended sittings so we could get advice from the attorney general on how we can go about with our work, while we have a dark cloud hanging over the auditor general and the PAC. I consulted the auditor general and the Speaker’s Office and it was stated that the PAC sittings should not have been suspended, because the Parliament is an independent arm of government that should not be affected by any utterances outside of it. I relayed the matter to the Committee as well,” he said.
The PAC Chairperson told the House that they had been advised that the PAC should continue with its sittings and urged Khumalo to clarify the legal position on the matter.

Deviated

The attorney general stated that he had not deviated from the previous conversation he had with the chairperson. Khumalo said the PM’s statement should not affect the proceedings of the PAC or any Parliament business. “I can confirm that indeed, the deputy speaker, who is also PAC chairperson, contacted me and I gave him advice. I wish to state for the record that I stand by what I said on our phone conversation. It was inappropriate for the PAC to suspend sittings on the basis of a statement that had been issued by the PM in another forum,” he said.
The attorney general shared with the House about the separation of powers. Khumalo added that the government implemented Acts of Parliament, not the other way around.  He stated that the country had three arms of government, which are the Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary. He explained that these three arms’s operations were independent of each other, as guaranteed by the Constitution of Swaziland (Eswatini).

Khumalo said the job of the legislature is to make laws and play an oversight on the Executive side of government. “The Executive arm of government is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the government and implementing laws that are made by Parliament. The Judiciary is responsible for interpreting the law and passing judgments according to the law,” he said. He reminded the MPs that the Legislature carries out its operations through sessional committees, as provided in Section 129 of the Constitution. The attorney general said the PAC and the Finance Committee were the only sessional committees that were prescribed in the Constitution in terms of Section 209, meaning, the PAC is a ‘creature’ of the Constitution and its powers are constitutionally provided for. 

Khumalo said the PM was just expressing his personal opinion and his opinion was not binding on Parliament or any committee of Parliament, more especially the PAC. “There should not be an opinion of any member of the Executive, be it the PM, DPM or any minister, that can interfere with the duties of Parliament or operations of this House, because of the independence that exists within the three arms of government,” Khumalo said.

Suspend

Therefore, the PAC should not suspend sittings because; the PM expressed an opinion, and the PM does not have powers to halt the operations of Parliament.“There is no single member of the government Executive that has powers to suspend Parliament business,” he said. He said since there was no legal support for the suspension of the PAC’s operations, it was wrong for the PAC to suspend its sittings. “We, therefore, advise that the PAC should resume its operations, because there is no legal basis for the stoppage of work by the PAC,” Khumalo said.
Mhlanga asked the PAC members to convene after yesterday’s sitting. At the time this report was compiled, it had not been communicated officially when the PAC sitting will resume.
Sigwe MP David Ngcamphalala lauded Khumalo and the deputy speaker for the clarity. He said the clarity had assisted everyone who was unsure what was happening, given the crucial task bestowed to the PAC.

However, Ntondozi MP Peter ‘Vulinjini’ Ngwenya needed further clarification, given that inasmuch as the three arms of government were independent of each other, their operations were somehow intertwined. He said he felt the PAC took the decision based on that the people who should implement what the Legislature had worked on were questioning what they were doing. “I feel like we still have a problem here, we are talking about the PM of the country who said someone was incompetent,” he said. Khumalo said the PM’s statement was not a fact, but an opinion; therefore, an opinion should not affect Parliament’s business.

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