Bheki Maphalala

Public sources give little detail of Maphalala's childhood or exact date of birth. He is recorded under the fuller name Moses Cuthbert Bhekie Maphalala in government notices after his death. He studied law at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, graduating in 1990 with B Proc and LLB degrees, as summarised by the Southern African Chief Justices' Forum biography.

Maphalala practised as an attorney from 1992 to 2009. He served on the Constitutional Review Commission from 1996 and on the Constitution Drafting Committee from 2002. Appointed to the High Court in 2009, he joined the Supreme Court in 2011 as its first permanently appointed Swazi member. After Ramodibedi's removal he became acting Chief Justice in June 2015 and was permanently appointed by King Mswati III on 10 November 2015, also chairing the Judicial Service Commission. During nearly eleven years in office he oversaw significant expansion of the High Court and Industrial Court benches, pressed localisation of senior judicial posts, and chaired the Southern and Eastern Africa Chief Justices Forum, where he addressed judicial independence, human rights administration and emerging technology in electoral justice. His earlier High Court contempt ruling against The Nation (2013) and the 2018 disbarring of Muzi Simelane drew international human-rights criticism even as domestic lawyers praised his administrative leadership.

Beyond the courts, Maphalala held traditional office as Indvuna of the KoNtjingila Chiefdom under Chief Bhozongo, who after his death praised his role in guiding chiefdom development and resolving local problems. Other reports also linked him to responsibilities at Ekuhlaleni Royal Kraal. Detailed accounts of his immediate family were not published in the principal English-language obituaries used for this page.

Maphalala died in the early hours of Thursday, 10 September 2026, while receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness in South Africa, after transfer from a private hospital in Eswatini. Independent News reported that he had been admitted in Nelspruit. The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and the Judiciary announced the death on 11 September, calling it an irreplaceable loss to the judiciary, the legal fraternity and the nation, and extending condolences on behalf of King Mswati III, the Queen Mother, government and the judiciary. Funeral arrangements were to be announced with the family.

Maphalala is remembered as the first liSwati permanently to lead Eswatini's judiciary and as the Chief Justice who held office through the country's 2018 renaming. African judicial peers emphasised his work for regional cooperation through the Southern and Eastern Africa Chief Justices Forum. At home, lawyers credited him with making courts function more effectively through appointments and backlog reduction, while rights organisations recorded controversies from his bench and from decisions taken as Chief Justice. His tenure closed a chapter in which the highest judicial office had often been held by non-citizen Commonwealth judges.