King Mswati III, the autocratic ruler of Swaziland,
appointed seven judges to the Supreme Court in contravention of the kingdom’s
Constitution, Amnesty
International has reported.
As a result, the Law Society of Swaziland boycotted
the November Supreme Court session and demanded the appointment of permanent
judges in line with Section 153 of the Constitution, which stipulates that
judges be appointed in an open, transparent and competitive process.
Amnesty said in its just published annual
report on human rights in the kingdom that in other legal developments, the
High Court ruled that sections of the 1938 Sedition and Subversive Activities
Act (SSA) and the 2008 Suppression of Terrorism Act (STA) were invalid as they
infringed on constitutionally protected rights to freedom of expression,
association and assembly. The judgment came after provisions in the laws were
challenged in the applications filed in 2009 by human rights lawyer Thulani
Maseko. Thulani Maseko was charged under the SSA in 2009.
Another application was filed in 2014 by Mario Masuku
and Maxwell Dlamini, leaders of the banned opposition People’s United
Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), who were charged under both Acts in 2014; and by
Mlungisi Makhanya and seven others, who were also charged under the Acts in
2014.
Amnesty also reported that a Public Order Bill, going
through Parliament, if passed, would undermine rights to freedom of peaceful
assembly and of association.
‘Among other things, it would criminalize the act of
organizing a public gathering without prior notification to the authorities.
The bill, which was expected to be passed by the kingdom’s unelected Senate,
before being ratified by the King, remained in draft form at the end of the
year,’ it stated.
See also
REPRESSIVE
SWAZI LAWS STILL IN PLACE
LAW SOCIETY TAKES ON TOP JUDGES
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