. Protection of a corrupt Minister of Justice
. Jailing editor Bheki Makhubu and lawyer Thulani Maseko . Sex in the office with a junior staff member . Fraud . Tax evasion . Skips the country _____ Rand Daily Mail.png Swazi judiciary on the skids as warrant issued for chief justice A warrant of arrest has been issued for Swazi chief justice Michael Ramodibedi as well as for his colleague, Mpendulo Simelane, on charges of corruption Carmel Rickard, Rand Daily Mail, Johannesburg, 22 April 2015 After a chaotic four days during which rumours flew back and forth over the border, it is now clear that a warrant has been issued for the arrest of controversial Swaziland chief justice Michael Ramodibedi as well as for his equally controversial colleague, Mpendulo Simelane. The arrest warrants were signed by the principal judge of the high court, Stanley Maphalala, on Friday evening, but it is not yet clear when the warrants will be executed. It is understood that the warrants were originally sought by Swaziland's anti-corruption commission (ACC) after the commission was blocked by Ramodibedi from taking action against the minister of justice. On Monday Ramodibedi dismissed an application by the ACC to arrest the minister, saying no action could be taken against any minister without the king's permission. To do so would be disrespectful to His Majesty, said the judge. Ramodibedi also ordered that no other judge deal with the matter unless he, Ramodibedi, had given personal authorisation to do so. According to the ACC, it had evidence that large, unexplained amounts of cash had been deposited into the law firm of the minister of justice and that other large sums had been withdrawn. When the commission asked the minister to explain, he did not respond. This was why the commission sought to arrest the minister. In addition to the arrest warrant for the chief justice, impeachment charges against Ramodibedi have also been prepared in terms that leave no doubt they are framed to provide evidence of impeachable misconduct. The document - seen by the RDM - lists a number of graft-related charges of serious misbehaviour. The first charge cites the dismissed April 13 arrest warrant application by the anti-corruption commission and his order that no other judge may deal with it except with his express permission. The dossier, which is several pages long, includes allegations that he committed serious misbehaviour by unlawfully recording a phone conversation between himself and the prime minister. He is further alleged to have committed serious misbehaviour and to have eroded public confidence in the country's justice system, by allocating a recent case in which he was personally involved against the Swazi tax authorities, to Simelane. The significance of this charge is that the chief justice had Simelane preside over a dispute between Ramodibedi and the revenue authorities, even though Simelane, in his previous capacity as registrar of the high court, had been personally involved in the matter. As registrar Simelane had made written and oral representations on behalf of Ramodibedi to the tax authorities, yet after his appointment as a judge he was personally selected by Ramodibedi to hear the matter. Requested to recuse himself from the hearing, Simelane refused to do so. In his judgment on the tax dispute, Simelane said argument for his recusal was "deeply flawed" because "the judge presiding in this matter [meaning himself] is not a party in the instant matter". He (Simelane) also had no direct and substantial interest in the matter and was merely executing his duties as registrar when he wrote the letters and convened the meetings. The tax authorities had "resorted to this strategy to obstruct the hearing of this appeal," he concluded, before finding in favour of Ramodibedi. Other allegations against Ramodibedi include his handling of further cases in which he had a direct pecuniary interest, and where he specially appointed acting judges to preside. It is also claimed that "on diverse occasions" he told his official driver to drive him out of the country, even though the driver had not been given government permission to leave. He further "caused his driver and security officers to incur and/or claim travel and subsistence allowances in respect of trips not authorised by government". He allegedly directed the registrar of the supreme court to submit a claim for remuneration and allowances for supreme court judges to which they were not entitled. The list also includes a claim of sexual impropriety involving a member of his staff, in his office. Most of these issues have been a matter of public knowledge - even scandal - for some time, however, but his dismissal of the anti-corruption commission's attempts to deal with graft in high places appears to have been what finally prompted this challenge to his authority. Following his crucial decision to dismiss the ACC's steps against the justice minister, matters escalated. On Wednesday it was widely rumoured that a warrant had been issued against him and that he managed to evade arrest at the border on his way to South Africa. However he later told local Swazi media that this was untrue and that he and his wife had crossed the border without any problem. At the same time Swazi media reported that the most senior advisory councils to the king, labadzala, had issued a notice that he should appear before them immediately. He had not done so, but had left the country, apparently despite knowing of the notice. A senior Swazi lawyer explained to the RDM the significance of the message from labadzala: "Everyone who lives and works here knows that if such a call comes, you drop everything to respond. Respect demands that of you." On Friday evening the RDM learned that documents were being drawn up against Ramodibedi relating to a number of charges, all couched in the kind of language that would suggest they were being prepared for impeachment proceedings. Late on Friday the arrest warrant was signed by Maphalala. It appears that the homes of certain judges were searched in the interim. However, Swazi media reported on Saturday morning that it was not yet clear when the warrants would be executed against the two judges as certain formalities still had to be finalised. Both judges Ramodibedi and Simelane were intimately involved in the detention, trial and sentence of two human rights activists, Bheki Makhubu, editor of The Nation, and lawyer Thulani Maseko. They are still in prison for their strong criticism of Ramodibedi's behaviour after he tried to prevent officials ticketing an official car being driven without the necessary permission. It turned out that the passenger in the vehicle was a member of the judiciary. Ramodibedi has held a number of top judicial positions. Most recently he was president of Lesotho's appeal court at the same time as holding the top Swazi job. He resigned suddenly after losing a bid to prevent the authorities in Lesotho from establishing a committee to consider impeaching him. Claims that the impeachment committee in Lesotho had been asked to consider included fraud: Ramodibedi had allegedly instructed his driver to say that he, the driver, had been behind the wheel when Ramodibedi's official vehicle was involved in an accident. According to the charges, however, the driver was in fact Ramodibedi's son. Ramodibedi, born in Lesotho, has also held high judicial office in Botswana and the Seychelles. From: http://www.rdm.co.za/politics/2015/04/22/swazi-judiciary-on-the-skids-as-war rant-issued-for-chief-justice -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
