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Cabinet to remain in office even after primary elections

23/08/2013 02:33:00 BY KWANELE DHLADHLA

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MBABANE - Cabinet Ministers will remain in office even after the primary elections tomorrow.

The acting Prime Minister, Themba Masuku, said the current status quo remained unchanged.
Masuku whose substantive political position is Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) said: “Cabinet ministers will remain in office until they are told otherwise. For now, they (ministers) will continue to execute their duties even during and after the primary elections since nothing has been officially communicated by the appointing authority,” Masuku said.

Previously, Cabinet was dissolved after the primary elections.
His Majesty King Mswati III dissolved Parliament three weeks ago at the Ludzidzini Cattle Byre but Cabinet has remained in office.
The King said a Council of Ministers, which he termed Sigejana, would be announced through the media. The committee is yet to be announced.
When asked when the ad hoc committee would be announced Masuku responded: “I cannot interpret the King’s message. Actually your guess is as good as mine.”

When interviewed yesterday, the Attorney General (AG), Majahenkhaba Dlamini, said to have Cabinet Ministers in office during the ongoing elections was not in violation of the Constitution in anyway.
“The situation to me seems to be the same, if the ministers were nominated while in office why can’t they be voted for while in office?” wondered Dlamini.

In a previous interview, the Attorney General said the dissolution of Parliament did not extend to Cabinet ministers because the latter were a different arm of government – that being the Executive. He said Cabinet would be dissolved separately.

In 2008, Cabinet remained in office after Parliament was dissolved and the ministers were only relieved of their duties on September 18 – a day before the Secondary Elections got underway
There was recently an argument that the nine ministers who were nominated to stand for the elections stood to be disqualified because they were nominated while still in office.

The argument was based on Section 97(1)(c) of the Constitution which stipulates that a person ‘who is holding or acting in public office does not qualify to be appointed, elected or nominated as the case may be, a senator or member of the House’.

The constitution in Section 254(a) states that the expression ‘public office’ refers to offices of judges of the High Court and Supreme Court, the offices of members of all other courts of law in Swaziland (other than court martials), and the offices of members of the police force and members of the prison services.

Section 254(b) states that the term ‘public office’ “shall not be construed as including the offices of President or Deputy President of the Senate, Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House, Minister, Deputy Minister, Senator, member of the House or member of any commission established by this Constitution.”