Tembo Pleads to Withdraw Eswatini Land Case

Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) Party Leader Sean Tembo has pleaded with the Constitutional Court to allow him withdraw the matter in which he had wanted the court to declare that President Edgar Lungu violated the constitution by accepting the Eswatini land as a gift without declaring it to the state.

Tembo has reneged on his desire to pursue the matter and has since applied to have the matter withdrawn.

However, the Attorney General has refused to have the matter withdrawn opting to see out the legal process.

Attorney General Likando Kalaluka has argued that the matter is a legal one while Tembo has advanced political reasons for his application.

Tembo claims that he has decided to withdraw the matter in the spirit of the conciliatory national dialogue process.

In his affidavit filed before the court Tembo submitted that if the matter is not withdrawn as per his request, it would mean that political parties leaders including himself would have to go to the 2021 polls with a carry forward of the political tension that existed in the 2016 general elections.

Tembo had a change of heart after his attempt to subpoena State House press aide Amos Chanda and Information Minister Dora Siliya failed.

The state has however argued that abandoning the case on account of national dialogue would not guarantee that the petitioner would not change his mind when the dialogue fails.

State Advocate Joe Simachela submitted that the petitioner’s action was politically motivated and therefore an abuse of the process of the court.

Simachela has also asked the court to take judicial notice of its ruling dated November 28 last year in which it dismissed the petitioner’s application to subpoena witnesses to testify on its behalf.

Both applications are yet to be heard and determined by the full bench.