HOME AFFAIRS’ 7 CASE: CIVIL SERVANTS DON’T EARN MUCH - LAWYER

MBABANE – “It is common cause that civil servants do not earn much.”

Noncedo Ndlangamandla of Mabila Attorneys made this submission before Principal Magistrate Fikile Nhlabatsi when moving an application for bail on behalf of Njabulo Thwala of Mpolonjeni. Thwala is one of the seven employees of the Ministry of Home Affairs, who were arrested on Thursday and charged with a combined 89 charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act No.3 of 2006. Thwala is implicated in 46 of the 89 charges. The accused persons are alleged to have, among other things, unlawfully given foreign nationals refugee identity (ID) numbers.

The other accused persons are Mbhekwa Ncongwane, Dumsile Lukhele, Phumzile Mdluli, Jean Khangezile Sitsebe, Faith Matse and Nqobile Helen Dlamini. They made their first court appearance before the principal magistrate yesterday. They were all represented by an attorney. One of the legal representatives was former High Court Judge Sipho Nkosi, who represented Matse. The prosecutor, Ngcebo Lukhele, applied that the accused persons be remanded in custody, pending their committal to the High Court. The accused persons applied for bail. Ndlangamandla, on behalf of Thwala, told the court that the accused is a breadwinner and is married with five children. The lawyer said Thwala’s wife was unemployed and his family depended on him for their livelihood.

Ndlangamandla prayed that the court should grant Thwala bail in the sum of E5 000. “It’s common cause that civil servants don’t earn much,” she said. She further submitted that her client undertook to abide by all the bail conditions if he were to be released on bail. Ndlangamandla mentioned that Thwala appeared on the 44th count to the 88th count. She implored the court not to treat him differently because of that.

Risk

Ben Simelane of Ben J. Simelane and Associates represented Mdluli and Lukhele. He also applied for bail on their behalf. Simelane said Mdluli (52) was approaching retirement and had been a loyal civil servant for the past 25 years. He submitted that she was not a flight risk. “The state owes her a lot in terms of pension. She won’t fly away and lose her pension. She will appear in court for this matter. All her assets and family are firmly in Eswatini; she won’t leave the country just because of this case,” Simelane submitted. On behalf of Lukhele (35), Simelane told the court she had been a reliable and hard working civil servant. He submitted that the court has discretion to grant them bail.

He argued that the court should not grant an excessive amount, because that would amount to a denial of bail. According to Simelane, his clients cooperated with the investigators. Nkosi submitted that Matse (44) has three children and is only facing two counts. Nkosi told the court that Matse was unlikely to evade trial, as she was not a flight risk.  He implored the court to fix her bail amount at E5 000. Nqobile also asked that her bail amount be fixed at E5 000. Nqobile was represented by Linda Dlamini of Linda Dlamini and Associates. Linda submitted that Nqobile appreciated the seriousness of the offence she has been charged with. She is facing one charge. Ncongwane told the court that he would plead not guilty. He was represented by Sivesonkhe Ngwenya of Sivesonkhe Ngwenya and Associates. Ngwenya submitted on Ncongwane’s behalf that the main consideration was whether his client would attend the trial or not.

Married

He tendered an amount of E5 000 as bail. He said that would be an appropriate amount. He also told the court that Ncongwane was not a flight risk. He said Ncongwane is married and in his family, he was the only one employed. Vuyo Mbingo of Robinson Bertram submitted on behalf of Sitsebe that she will plead not guilty to all the charges.  She faces five of the 89 counts. He submitted that she had never been arrested or charged for any act of misconduct. He said she would abide by all bail conditions. The Crown said a cash amount of E10 000 would suffice as bail.

The principal magistrate granted the accused persons’ bail applications. Nqobile was ordered to pay E5 000 bail and others E6 000. According to the court, those who were charged with more than one offence were to pay E6 000 and E5 000 was to be paid by those who face one offence. Nqobile was charged with only one offence. The immigration officers’ charges stem from their alleged contravention of the Prevention of Corruption Act No.3 of 2006. The basis of their charges is that they allegedly, directly or indirectly, gave and/or offered to give several foreign nationals the advantage of registration and/or issuance of refugee identity numbers.

Benefitted

This, they are alleged to have done, for the benefit of the foreign nationals to be recognised as refugees in Eswatini. The foreign nationals who allegedly benefitted from the purported acts of corruption by the accused persons are from African and overseas countries. According to the charge sheet, the accused persons allegedly abused their position of authority, which amounted to a breach of trust, amounting to a violation of their legal duty and/or set of rules. The accused were rounded up on Thursday by a joint operation by members of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

The offences were committed between November 2017 and March 2023 in Mbabane. A bulk of the offences were committed in March 2023. As reflected in the charge sheet, on some days in March 2023, various offences were committed in one day. The accused persons are accused of contravening Section 42(1)(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act read with Section 42(2)(b)(i). Alternatively read with Section 42(2)(b)(ii).

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: