The Swaziland monarchy has retracted a statement that caused a mass resignation of the country’s appeals court judges last year and plunged the tiny southern African country into a constitutional crisis.
The six judges, who are all South Africans, had said they would return to the bench only if King Mswati III undertook to comply with court orders, which the monarchy repeatedly refused to do until now.
The king and government officials held a meeting behind closed doors with the judges at the weekend and afterwards issued a joint statement to the media.
”His Majesty’s government wishes to make the statement that it unconditionally retracts the contents of the November 28 statement that the judges of the court of appeal were influenced by external forces in their work and that they were not independent in forming those judgements in question,” Swaziland attorney-general Phesheya Dlamini said in the statement released on Saturday evening.
The November statement refers to a judgement the court handed down in favour of people returning to land in eastern Swaziland from which they had been evicted to make way for Mswati’s brother, Prince Maguga.
The Appeals Court ruled that the evictees should return to the land, only to have their decision overturned by Dlamini, who said it undermined Mswati’s authority to legislate.
The court further ordered that police commissioner Edgar Hillary and Lubombo regional commander Agrippa Khumalo should be jailed for 30 days after they prevented the evictees from returning to their homes.
Dlamini said in the latest statement the government respected the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and accepted that it was fundamental to abide by judgements.
The former Judge President, Leon Steyn, said the judges had not yet decided whether they would return to the bench, but expressed optimism at the latest developments.
”All that the Swaziland government has to do is to abide by all rulings of the courts within the next 48 hours if we are to make meaningful progress in our deliberations,” Steyn said in the statement. – Sapa-AFP