Vuvulane residents’ wish to elect own councillors granted
MANZINI – Vuvulane Town residents are set to get an opportunity to elect their own councillors after being governed by appointed committees in the past two terms.
This is so because the High Court of Eswatini has ruled that the Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Prince Simelane, Principal Secretary (PS) in the ministry Clifford Mamba, Vuvulane Town Board Deputy Chairperson Zandile Tsabedze and Vuvulane Town Board (represented by Town Clerk Melusi Hlanze), should ensure that eligible voters at the town registered to vote.
About a fortnight ago, a group of 10 residents of Vuvulane Town took the aforementioned people (who are first to fourth respondents) to court over local government elections in the town.
Applicants
The applicants were; Sylvester Dlamini, Thabo Dlamini, Thabo Vilakati and Nkosinathi Maziya. The others were Hlobsile Ngozo, Luke Shabangu, Ncobile Gumedze, Mfundo Masuku, Sicelo Nene and Nhlanhla Mngometulu
In his founding affidavit, Sylvester submitted to the court that they only elected councillors at Vuvulane Town Board three times since the area was pronounced an urban area.
He alleged that this was the period between 1999 and 2012, as the last councillors’ elections were in the year 2008.
The applicant purported that since 2012, they had been denied their constitutional right to vote for their councillors as eligible voters of the Vuvulane Town Board, allegedly by the first and second respondents.
He submitted that they were denied their constitutional right without any lawful and/or justifiable reasons.
On the other hand, the PS in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Mamba responded to the applicants’ claims and submitted that the residents of Vuvulane Town had no cause to complain.
He told the court that the minister allegedly had discretionary power to decide whether to hold urban government elections or not and whether to appoint councillors or have them elected.
The matter was before High Court Judge Ticheme Dlamini and after considering the submissions from both parties, he ruled in favour of the resi