Despite the Supreme Court ruling in their favour in their case against a decision by National Assembly Speaker Peter Katjavivi, Landless People’s Movement (LPM) leader Bernadus Swartbooi said he still does not have confidence in the judicial system.

Swartbooi made these remarks on Wednesday during a press conference that took place at the party’s head office in Windhoek.

He was reacting to the Supreme Court judgement on his and fellow LPM leader Henny Seibeb’s case where they challenged Katjavivi’s decision to suspend them from Parliament.

Katjavivi ordered Swartbooi and Seibeb to leave the National Assembly Chamber on 15 April 2021 during a session in which President Hage Geingob was delivering his annual State of the Nation address amid a myriad of disruptions.

After the suspension, the LPM leaders approached the High Court to overturn Katjavivi’s decision and be reinstated back in Parliament, but their case was dismissed. However, they launched an appeal to the Supreme Court on 06 May 2021 against the High Court decision for dismissing their case.

On Wednesday, Supreme Court Judge David Smuts delivered his judgment on the matter and ruled in favour of the two LPM leaders, declaring the decision by Katjavivi unlawful, null and void. Judge Smuts also ordered the National Assembly Speaker to pay the opposition leaders’ legal costs.

During the press conference, Swartbooi said he cannot have confidence in the judicial system just because of one case. He said in this particular case the court had no choice but to do the right thing by ruling in their favour. Therefore, judges and magistrates should be judged on how they handle cases in a long term situation.

“These are some of the things that the court has no choice about, because you can’t keep an elected member suspended indefinitely on the basis of powers you don’t have. So our doubts still stand. The judicial system can’t be trusted because of one case,” said Swartbooi.

He added that LPM has done an important job, which is “now giving judges and magistrates the confidence to make judgements and decisions freely in critical cases that might concern the ruling elites in an open democratic system”.

“Had it not been for our work, judges and magistrates would have up to today lived in fear of taking a decision of this sort,” stated Swartbooi.

Source: Namibia Press Agency