21 Aug 2016

The Administration of Justice wishes to respond to the Editorial published by Mmegi in its edition of 17th August 2016 under the heading “Judiciary is polarised”.  

This is the latest in a series of articles published by that paper pleading the case of four suspended Judges and attacking the integrity of the Chief Justice, in a subjective and misleading manner, while litigation on the issue is presently before the Courts.

The allegation is made that the four Judges suffered victimisation while others received favouritism, and that “some of the Industrial Court and Court of Appeal Judges were implicated in this housing allowance fiasco but they escaped scot-free”.

The facts of the matter are that:

-    the Judges of the Industrial Court do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Chief Justice or of the Judicial Service Commission.

-    Mmegi has chosen not to disclose that the single Court of Appeal Judge and the two High Court Judges wrongly accused by the paper in a previous article of misappropriation of housing allowances have each given notice to commence legal action against Mmegi claiming substantial sums for defamation of character and that in two cases summons has 

already been issued.

-    it is not disputed that the four suspended Judges received and kept for themselves a total of over one million pula in undue housing allowances, over a period of several years.  None of the money has been repaid.

-    their case cannot be compared with previous administrative oversights which occurred many years ago under a different Registrar and a different Chief Justice involving insignificant sums of money which were promptly repaid.

The editorial refers to “the powers that be playing politics”, in that the Chief Justice reported the matter to the police, and it accused him of “brazen conflict of interest” because he was cited by the Judges as a party in their case which seeks to overturn their suspension and to invalidate the Judicial Tribunal, consisting of two foreign Judges and one local Judge, set up to consider their conduct.

In fact, it was the Judicial Service Commission, and not the Chief Justice alone, which resolved after a full debate to report the case to the police.  

The Chief Justice remains responsible for oversight of the Administration of Justice. 

The Industrial Court falls under the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs.  

He cannot abdicate his responsibilities at the behest of Judges suspended for their conduct.  

It is the Court and the Tribunal which will decide upon the issues raised, not Mmegi or its informant(s). BGCIS