Africa-Press – Eswatini. Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini allegedly made a direct MTN call to Sipho Mthethwa, the Chief Investigator of the Anti Corruption Commission(ACC) directing him to vigorously work towards ensuring that Senator Siphelele Mkhonta is arrested for corruption.
As reported by this publication earlier on Tuesday, this comes after the Senator challenged the PM to name the cabal he claimed was operating in the country, controlling even Parliament.
Classified details of the telephone conversation between the PM and the Chief Investigator suggests that, the PM said; “ngifuna lingapheli leliviki angakaboshwa lomfana”.
Senator Siphelele Mkhonta asked not to comment about the matter at this juncture.
“I am not ready to comment about the matter at this juncture Nkhosi”, said the Senator.
A questionnaire was sent to Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini, however, he had not responded at the time of compiling this report.
But lawyer Sibusiso Nhlabatsi, when responding to this publication, warned the PM against interfering with the operations of the Anti Corruption Commission “as this might compromise the legitimacy of corruption cases investigated by the ACC”.
The lawyer said, “the PM does not have powers in the terms of the Prevention of Corruption Act” to unleash the ACC against other politicians adding that, the arrests might be challenged in court.
“There’s nowhere in the Prevention of Corruption Act and, the Prevention of Organized Crime Act(POCA) where the Prime Minister is empowered to unleash ACC investigators against any suspected individual. These statutes empowers the police and the ACC to investigate corruption independently and, any interference in this regard, undermines the credibility of the investigations such that, the person who is being investigated might challenge the arrest in court, saying it was politically motivated. As a result, even if there was a genuine case of corruption, the prosecution might be undermined by the fact that, the instruction to investigate was issued by the Prime Minister who does not have any authority in terms of the law, to interfere in the operations of the ACC,” said the lawyer.
ACC Spokesperson Jabu Phakathi declined to comment about the matter.
But it is alleged that, the Prime Minister did not take kindly to the vigorous questioning by Senator Siphelele Mkhonta who challenged the Head of Government inside Parliament, to name the cabal.
The PM made the cabal statements after receiving false intelligence information from three(3) Zimbabweans he was working with, the Zimbabwean fugitives subsequently disappeared with over R2million public funds after providing false information to the Prime Minister.
For More News And Analysis About Eswatini Follow Africa-Press
