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MBABANE – Judge Cyril Maphanga has come hard on a family which was embroiled in a legal battle with a woman of Lobamba Lomdzala over access to her sick husband.
The judge said whatever differences the parties might have had he did not think this warranted them to conduct in what he described as a sordid affair.
The woman, Ncamisile Mnisi, was accused of having, for over a year, denied her in-laws access to her sick husband.
“That the applicants had almost succeeded in alienating the abducting of the patient in these strange circumstances asserted their say on the marital affairs of the fourth respondent (Mnisi) and her stricken husband displays untold cruelty and ill will. It is to be deprecated,” said Judge Maphanga.The Ginindza family took her (Mnisi) and the regional administrator(RA) of Manzini Region to court. The applicants are Nokuthula, Sithembiso, Mvuselelo, Ncamsile, Nelisiwe, Percy, Glory and Musa Ginindza.
They submitted in their court papers that the King’s liaison officer (ndabazabantu) advised that Mnisi, who is employed at EswatiniBank, had no right in law to deny them an opportunity to take her husband, Sabelo Selby Ginindza, to a hospital of their choice.
One of the applicants, Ncamsile, told the court that they were called to the RA’s office on August 25, 2022. The RA, Chief Gija, issued a directive that Sabelo should be returned to Mnisi, his wife.
Mnisi and Sabelo were married in terms of customary law and he paid lobola to her family at Mzaceni in the Hhohho Region. Ncamsile said Sabelo fell ill in 2020 and his condition deteriorated such that he suffered a mild stroke and had other complications in the same year.
She said her brother was bedridden and could not do anything without assistance. She further submitted that as a family, they expected Mnisi to update them on her husband’s condition. Mnisi stated that they noted that Ncamsile did not sleep in the same room as her husband despite that he was sick.
Visit
According to Ncamsile, Mnisi showed signs of being difficult in February 2022 and she allegedly did not want her in-laws to pay Sabelo a visit.
“She became difficult even when enquiries were being made over the phone, as to developments around Sabelo’s health. His health was deteriorating at an alarming pace,” said Ncamsile.
“Fourth respondent has been exercising a monopoly over the person of Sabelo for over a year and the ailment was not getting any better, instead his health has been deteriorating. She has been insisting on travelling with the said Sabelo to the Republic of Mozambique all by herself under pretext that he was attending a surgical operation on his eyes.”
In dismissing the application, Judge Maphanga said greater disquiet should be induced by these proceedings where children of the patient and his next of kin had seen it fit to wrestle their ailing father from his homestead and the care of his wife, to whom he was still lawfully married.
“This stands out as one extraordinary character of these proceedings which is a stark feature that has no known precedent. I can think of no matter as this where complete disregard to the rules of this court has been displayed. It is the kind that should attract censure as abuse of the court process and attract punitive costs,” reads part of the judgment.
He went on to state that, he thought it was imperative that short of this, he should express the court’s displeasure to the shoddy manner the matter was brought to court.
“That I do not award a deserving punitive costs order can only be attributed to Mr Ngcamphalala’s gracious indulgence that he did not insists on the higher scale, but that a costs order in the ordinary scale as between party be entered,” said the judge.
Mnisi was represented by Banele Ngcamphalala of Mtshali Ngcamphalala Attorneys, while for the applicants was Advocate Lucas Maziya, who was instructed by lawyers from Sibusiso B Shongwe and Associates.