Barnabas Dlamini, the Prime Minister of Swaziland, is
wrong to say the no-confidence vote passed against him and his government was
illegal because it sought to force Cabinet to break the law.
Parliamentarians wanted him out of office because of the
way the government forced the parastatal Swaziland Posts and Telecommunication
Corporation (SPTC) to switch off its Fixedfones and data components which left
thousands of people with expensive and useless gadgets.
Dlamini’s case is that he and his ministers were obliged
by the International Court of Arbitration (ICA) to make the move, implying that
he did not want to do so, but his hand was forced.
Dlamini, in an interview with the Times Sunday newspaper in Swaziland, said to disobey the ICA would
be to go against the rule of law. But this is not true, because despite its name the
International Court of Arbitration is not a court: it is a forum where business
enterprises that are in dispute can come together to settle differences in
front of a panel of arbitrators.
Presumably, PM Dlamini knew this to be true since on its
website the International Court of Arbitration states clearly that it exists
‘to resolve disputes outside of formal litigation in court’.
Since it is not a court, any decision the ICA makes is
not legally binding. Discussions at the ICA are confidential, but what seems to
have happened was that the SPTC agreed after arbitration with its rivals the
MTN cellphone company to close down its own services and allow MTN a free hand
in the market. If the case for SPTC had been better argued, a different
decision might have been reached and the closure of services avoided.
There are rules that can make an arbitration binding on
the parties involved. These are in the New York Arbitration Convention, but
Swaziland has not signed up to this, so there is nothing to force the
government to comply with the ICA decision.
Since the Swazi House of Assembly passed a vote of no
confidence in the Cabinet on Wednesday (3 October 2012), Dlamini has been
refusing to abide by the Constitution and resign. His main reason has been that
he had no choice but to close down the SPTC services because the ICA had ruled
that it must and not to do so would be to break the law.
Dlamini is also claiming that the Swaziland High Court
has ruled that SPTC must close the services, but in fact, the court has not
delivered on the case.
Now, it is clear that there are no legal rulings, he has
no excuse. Nor has King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch,
who, if he is to abide by the Constitution should sack the government
immediately.
See also
SWAZI PM HAS FORM AS LAWBREAKER
PM VOWS TO DEFY CONSTITUTION
No comments:
Post a Comment