Property Rights

A big property rights case was before the High Court of Swaziland just a few months before I got here. In the case her lady ship, Justice Qinsile Dlamini finally allowed women to own property in their own names, invalidating a act of parliament that had not been updated to give effect to equality rights. Previously women were only allowed to buy property in their husbands name, which of course creates problems in cases involving abuse or divorce proceedings. It was a landmark case.

However just two days before I arrived here, this decision was over turned at the Appeal Court. Justice Moore cited reasons of separation of powers- simply put, he found that the court could not direct parliament on how to update its law. This is despite the fact that it had taken parliament 5 years (and counting) to address their laws in order to bring them in line with the constitutional act containing the bills of rights (passed in 2005).

Of course I was, and still am, flabbergasted by this situation.

So I got in touch with a journalist with IRIN news. Here is the article: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89510

Enjoy.