Swaziland recently appointed an acting Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala in June 2015 after the removal of the previous head of the judiciary. The new appointee is the first Swazi to be appointed to the esteemed position and has the important task of restoring the nation’s confidence in his office and the judicial system.
According to the most recent Afrobarometer survey held in Swaziland in April and May 2015, only one in four Swazis had confidence in the Chief Justice, when Michael Ramodibedi was in charge, with a majority indicating they had no confidence in him and one in 10 reporting that they “don’t know or did not have enough to say”.
Confidence in the traditional courts was the highest amongst versus the law society and the judiciary. Three in five citizens said they were “confident/very confident” in the traditional courts. However, under half of Swazis had confidence in the judiciary in general and only four in 10 in the law society.