The credibility of a former Botswana court of Appeal judge, Michael Ramodibedi, now based in Swaziland is being called into question following a controversial decision to susepend a former Botswana High Court judge also based in Swaziland.
Justice Ramodibedi, who is the Chief Justice in Swaziland, is at the end of a blistering attack by the Swazi civic community after suspending Justice Thomas Masuku under controversial circumstances. Ramodibedi is accused of allowing “his position as independent custodian of the law to not only be questionable but to descend to the lowest ebb, competing with only Zimbabwe in the region”.
Justice Ramodibedi is being portrayed as a puppet dancing to the tug of King Mswati’s strings.
The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations has released a statement saying it is outraged at the underhanded, petty and vindictive treatment of Justice Thomas Masuku by Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi. 
“It completes an already dreadful pattern of contemptible and obsequious actions and decisions by the Chief Justice who has abused his powers by attacking a free press, a supposedly sovereign Parliament and those judges who are prepared to consider the merits of the facts of a case rather than who the litigants are or how close they are to government and the royal family,” wrote the coalition over the weekend.
Justice Ramodibedi has filed up to 12 charges against Justice Masuku. At the centre of the charges is an allegation that Justice Masuku has insulted the King. Ramodibedi told the international media that Judge Masuku is accused of using the expression “forked-tongue” in a ruling referring to the king. King Mswati III is an absolute monarch who has ruled the southern African state for more than two decades. Other charges include: allegedly disrespecting the CJ; he allegedly threatened to resign some time last year; he is also accused of scheming to topple the CJ from his position. He is also accused of being involved in an intimate affair with a certain judge. Masuku has denied the charges and has vowed that he will defend himself at an appropriate forum. The coalition said it was concerned when, in 2009, a man in post independence Africa was happy to call himself Makhulu Baas ÔÇô ‘an outdated, racist epithet that should never, ever be heard coming from the lips of a liberated African, never mind a Chief Justice’.
“Treating fellow judges in the same language as Boers treated their farmhands was a disgusting insult to Swazi lawyers and judges and showed his contempt for the constitutional norms of an independent judiciary. Without an Independent Judiciary we cannot have a democracy,” read the statement.
The coalition accused the Chief Justice of attempting to stop legitimate criticism of the judiciary by the press and other independent commentators by issuing charges against The Nation Magazine, saying without Free Speech we cannot have democracy.
“This is the Chief Justice that was happy to grant a one-sided injunction against Parliament by the prime minister who was acting as an individual over his unreasonable and unethical attempts at self-enrichment through buying land at a heavy discount when acting as PM.┬á Without a Robust Parliament we cannot have democracy.
“The CJ and his Registrar, Lorraine Hlophe, have ridden roughshod over the notions of independence.┬áThey have tried to sideline capable judges such as Thomas Masuku and Qinisile Mabuza into trying only criminal cases and not the mixed case load of criminal and civil that in normal Swazi practice every other judge has.┬áWithout an independent administration of Judiciary we cannot have a democracy.”
It further said the charges laid in the attempt to discipline Justice Masuku are so obviously frivolous that ‘they are the signs of a man, an institution and a system of governance that are so out of touch with ordinary people and reality that they have again demonstrated that they never had any credibility as a democratic government’.
“In one simple move, the Chief Justice has attempted to undermine the Constitution, Parliament and the judiciary. In our opinion, he has brilliantly succeeded in showing to the world the truth of the sham of the Swazi Constitution. It is an instrument of oppression, not transformation and the Chief Justice is proving to be its Chief Whip and Apologist,” stated the coalition.
