Evicted Swazi chiefs win appeal case

Swaziland’s Court of Appeal has ordered that evicted Chief Mtfuso II of KaMkhweli and all his subjects must be taken back to their home area, PANA reported on Wednesday. The Court of Appeal judges said their previous status must be maintained until the final determination of the legality or otherwise of their evictions by the High Court. The chiefs were evicted 13 October to make way for King Mswati’s elder brother, Prince Maguga. The KaMkweli-Macetjeni evictions sparked a series of protests by human rights groups in the country. Justices Browde, Steyn and Beck stated that the first judgement Chief Justice Stanley Aspire issued that the High Court had no jurisdiction to hear the matter was unequivocal, final and definitive and it was therefore not open to him to reverse it even if he later thought he was wrong. “It is therefore the decision of this court that the second judgement of the learned Chief Justice was bad in law and it must be set aside as a nullity,” they stated.