ROYAL AIDES’BAIL AMOUNT A TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE SSN - Statement. 20 July, 2020
In early 2006, Malungisa Mahlalela, a very dedicated police officer working under the Serious Crimes Unit made an audacious and very constitutional attempt to arrest one of King Mswati’s notorious wives, Sibonelo Mngometulu after he had collected enough evidence to prove that she was involved in a diamond smuggling syndicate. While waiting for the royal crime suspect to follow him to the police station, the police officer was forcefully removed from the royal residence by other police officers and immediately fired from work for what was termed “professional misconduct”. In the aftermath of this very bizarre episode, the Royal Swaziland Police Commissioner issued a directive to all his subordinates that from henceforth all members of the royal family were “untouchable”, regardless of their seniority or constitutional status. According to the constitution only the king and the Queen mother are above the law, although the constitution gives the king the prerogative to grant legal immunity to other people as he wishes. This particular story about the Nkoyoyo royal residence was bound to come back to haunt the royal family at some point. Fourteen years later two royal aides, Zandile Malinga and Nokulunga Simelane, have since been arrested for allegedly stealing jewelery worth R800 000 from the very same palace where the suspected diamond smuggler used her royal status to avoid arrest. The two aides are now in police custody and the same legal apparatus that failed Malungisa Mahlalela two decades ago has shown just how skewed the judiciary is in favour of the royal family. In what is a clear travesty of justice the judge in charge of the case has slapped the two with E200 000 bail which is an extraordinary amount of money for domestic helpers. It is therefore clear that the courts have already presumed the two royal aides guilty of the suspected offence before even hearing the full facts of the story. Such a mishandling of the legal apparatus should not be allowed to become a norm in the country. We therefore urge all members of the Mass Democratic Movement and the nation at large to support the two suspects and demand that they be allowed a free and fair trial, which has to begin with lowering their bail amount. Furthermore, we wish to warn the royal family of the monsters they have created by allowing such shady characters like the king’s wife to be effectively immune from prosecution. They should investigate how she got hold of so much jewelry in the first place. Any human being operating under the assumption that their actions have no legal consequences will eventually degenerate into a psychopath. Issued by the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) Contact Lucky Lukhele - Spokesperson 0814585658 -- -- NEW!!!! SSN FORUM IS ON FACEBOOK!!!! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Swaziland Solidarity Network Forum Google Group. Visit the group home page at http://groups.google.com/group/sa-swaziland-solidarity-eom-forum for more options, pages and files. To post to the group, send email to sa-swaziland-solidarity-eom-forum@googlegroups.com or reply to this message. To unsubscribe, send email to sa-swaziland-solidarity-eom-forum-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Swaziland Solidarity Network Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sa-swaziland-solidarity-eom-forum+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sa-swaziland-solidarity-eom-forum/CANZ%2BSV%2Bakxibmt-OTFpUPTcRkejK1w-sDBZwC6o9fQKzx23GxQ%40mail.gmail.com.
