swaziland times

BABANE – The High Court has approved an undertaking by the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Gciniwe Fakudze, not to assume the position of Chief Executive Officer for the time being.

The undertaking is now a court order and will remain in force until the case challenging her appointment by the Mbabane Municipal Council is resolved. They want her appointment reviewed and set aside. The matter is awaiting judgment. However, the city council filed a notice of adjournment on Friday seeking approval of Fakuze’s undertaking that he would not perform his duties until the final decision of the court. The council’s representative, Mangaliso Nkomondze of Nkomondze Law Firm, told the court yesterday that the defendant’s statement was very crude but the facts were simple.

He explained that they have committed to maintaining the status quo. Nkomonze said they had sought in the notice of motion for an interim order under which Fakuze would be prohibited from performing his duties while the case is pending. However, he said they had concerns, which became a reality even within 24 hours of filing the suspension notice on Friday. According to Nkomonze, they are concerned that Housing and Urban Development Minister Appolo Maphalala will not fulfil his promises.

He said first the minister reduced the undertaking to an email but parliament felt that was not formal enough and asked for it to be done in the form of a letter. He said this had been done and they believed the minister would maintain the status quo. Nkomonze said if that was the case there would be no need to go to court to ratify the undertaking.“Yet within 48 hours, The Observer reported that the minister had ignored his promise. This puts us in a precarious position,” Nkomonze said.Minister Mapalala denied what he said. The minister is said to have responded to the author of the article in an interview, saying he would not respond because the matter was still before the court and he would wait for the court’s guidance. The article said the minister said he would not confirm whether Fakuze would go to work yesterday, or whether she would not go to work.

Rejected

Nkomonze said that although the minister denied what he said, “like you, I can only guess who is telling the truth.” He said they had reason to believe what was in the newspapers. He said they asked themselves why they should risk hearing what the minister had to say next. “Why not just endorse the pledge so that anyone who violates it will know they are breaking the law,” Nkomonze said.Assistant Attorney General Mbuso Simelane told the court he had read the newspapers at the weekend but the minister said what he said.

According to Simelane, the minister was very adamant that he believed the matter would be dealt with by the courts and would await the verdict. He said the minister indicated that he would not put pressure on the judge. Simelane said Fakuze was not anywhere near the city council. He said he had spoken to the minister, who denied what he had said. “He said it would be disrespectful to comment on the matter and said they were waiting for guidance from the courts in order to move forward. The minister said he did not know where this statement (that he would not confirm whether Fakuze was at work yesterday) came from,” Simelane said.

He admitted that they had promised Fakuze that they would not take office for the time being. Simelane said they now hope that this promise will be approved by the court.
He said they objected to this because it was the attorney general who made the promise, “so we don’t need to go to the courts for support.”Simelane also told the court that the city hall employees were allegedly harassed over the matter and that they needed psychological counselling. He applied to have the matter struck off the court roll. However, Justice Maseko ruled in favour of the city hall and approved the undertaking as a court order.

The hearing notice states that the matter was scheduled for hearing yesterday and the following orders were made: “By consent, the seventh and eighth orders of the applicant’s notice of motion dated July 17, 2024 are granted,” the municipality’s notice reads. In a letter signed by Simelane, in response to Simelane’s letter and emails exchanged so far between the two parties, he stated: “On the premise, they do not agree to such an order as they believe it would prove that the application of your client was improper”, which is part of the letter to Nkomondze’s lawyers.