Mbabane: Pro-democracy Members of Parliament, Mduduzi ‘Bacede’ Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube are set to spend seven (7) more days in prison as their bail hearing has been postponed to next week Tuesday.
The bail hearing took place virtually where Judge Mumcy Dlamini postponed the bail to next week Tuesday.
The two MPs are at the front of democratic calls and were arrested, facing charges of allegedly contravening the Suppression of Terrorism Act of 2008, while Mabuza faces a further charge of contravening Regulation 4 of the Disaster Management (COVID-19) Regulations 2020 under the Disaster Management Act of 2006. They are alleged to have committed these crimes in June this year.
It is alleged that they acted jointly with Siphofaneni Member of Parliament Mduduzi ‘Gawuzela’ Simelane to incite the people of Eswatini to revolt against the government.
Earlier, their bail application was dismissed and in their new bail application, the two MPs had submitted that there were new circumstances that warranted their release on bail.
The two legislators are currently incarcerated at the Matsapha Maximum Prison. They earlier told the court that since they were denied bail, further evidence had emerged that the charges against them were cooked. They alleged that the country’s authorities had a hand in their arrest.
The Crown had earlier been adamant that it would not be in the interest of justice to release the duo on bail. The State claimed that Dube and Mabuza would continue to instigate public violence if granted bail.
In his opposing affidavit, Senior Superintendent Clement Sihlongonyane earlier told the court that it would not be in the interest of justice to release the pair as they would endanger public safety. He reiterated the fact that they faced serious offences and their sentence was likely to be stiff, which would induce them to flee.
He highlighted that the MPs were charged with an offence of terrorism for instigating public violence that led to the loss of lives, destruction of private and public property, and looting.
Sihlongonyane mentioned that Simelane had vowed not to surrender himself to the police and to continue to fight underground using any approach available to him. He further told the court that the charges against the two MPs were not trumped up as there was evidence that they committed the offence by inciting members of the public to riot.
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