As of 1 August 2010, the Attorney-General of Swaziland will be appointed for another 5 years. Although only an ex officio member of Cabinet, the AG is in my estimation the most powerful man in parliament. How? He controls the legislative process. The AGs office is responsible for preparing bills. As there are no political parties allowed in the Swazi parliament, he is the sole source of legislation. Nor does Cabinet exercise control: if there is legislation he doesn’t like, the AG will make sure it is buried in the morass of draft bills and policies floating around the office. Legislation he agrees with will receive favourable treatment. That the AG is the most powerful man in parliament under the 2005 Constitution is no accident – he drafted it. So, congratulations. By the time he finishes his term in 2015, the current AG will have been in office for a decade.
The Acting Chief Justice was not so fortunate. He has had his probationary term extended for a little over 4 months (7 October 2009 – 25 February 2010). You see when the AG was drafting the sections on the judiciary, he forgot to include security of tenure for the senior judges. Big problem.
