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Swazi Coalition Welcomes Prime Ministers Announcement on the Role of Parliament.Media statement

25 February 2010Today the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic welcomed yesterdays statements by thePrime Minister and Government Press Office that finally publicly sets out for all to see theconstitutional position of parliament and the judiciary. They are effectively departmentswithin the Prime Ministers Office.

At last the Prime Minister has openly admitted that the full and proper independence of bothParliament and the Judiciary is a sham and that the control of budgets, staffing, legislativeand judicial timetables are all within the power of the Prime Minister to exercise andmanipulate. Yet he calls Swaziland a fully democratic state.

In a democratic state, the will of the people is expressed in its choice of government. InSwaziland, the peoples will had no say in the choice of government. There were hundreds ofthousands of votes for parliamentarians whose wishes are now being overruled by the PrimeMinister who only received one vote. How can he call that a democratic state? He is notaccountable to the people or parliament.

We hope that the country recognises the complete lack of common sense that the governmentshows when it feels it can say the fact that Cabinet is accountable to Parliament is not inconflict with the Prime Minister being the ministerial head of Parliament. That statement issimply absurd - you cannot be accountable to yourself.

Similarly, we see that the Registrar of the High Court is willing to abuse her powers tofrustrate a clear instruction from a High Court Judge. How can we have a fully independent

judiciary when the court administration openly and willingly defies its own judges? We aregrateful to the Registrar when she publicly states that she and other court administrators are

prepared to manipulate the court roll for political advantage or expediency, a fact we longsuspected but are glad it is now confirmed.

King Sobuzas 1973 decree suspended the constitution and centralised all powers in theMonarch. It has never been repealed and the Prime Minister has effectively let slip that it isnow alive and well in our Constitution. The window dressing of the institutions ofdemocracy - elections, parliament, judiciary and supposedly independent oversight bodies

should fool nobody. All power is sourced directly from the throne and is accountable to it,not the people.

We urge the Prime Minister and his cabinet to revisit the Commonwealths Latimer HousePrinciples that Swaziland has signed up to. These guide governments on the proper roles of

parliament, judiciary and the executive in a country. The constitutional law in Swazilandfalls far short of the principles and the practice even more so.Musa Hlophe, the Co-ordinator of the Coalition said Prime Minister Dlamini today hasconfirmed what we as democrats have long suspected, Swazi government has no intention ofever freeing the country and letting the will of the people be the guiding light of government

and human rights its bedrock. Saying Swaziland is a Democracy is like calling a pig a bulland waiting for it to grow horns.

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On a separate note the Coalitions Co-ordinator also welcomed this weeks Doo Aphane

judgement that allows married women the same property rights as their husbands. Hlophesaid It is the first time our courts have formally recognised the constitutional equality

between men and women. We hope that this landmark case is respected by government and

parliament and that they both take the deeper lessons that our laws must be speedily updatedto reflect the constitution and our human rights. Women and men everywhere should rejoiceat the first step towards formal equality. There will be many more to come and we hope thatthe government does not see it as its duty to resist equality every step of the way.

Musa HlopheCo-ordinatorSCCCO