Justice Kebonang irked by ouster allegations
Mpho Mokwape | Wednesday October 2, 2024 10:34
Justice Kebonang has denied the allegations calling it, 'lies and an act of evil and wickedness' on the part of the complainant to question his judicial decisions issued in the course of the management of the said case. “The substance of the complaint as I understand it is that I usurped the parties’ case from Judge Segopolo and that I deliberately sat on issuing a final order in the matter despite being directed to do so by the Court of Appeal,” he said. In a response letter addressed to Chief Justice, Terrence Rannowane, regarding a complaint filed by Bookbinder Business Law on behalf of First National Bank Botswana (FNBB), Justice Kebonang said the complainant knowingly presented a complaint that is false. He explained that no case of misconduct can be found on such mischievous and blatant falsehoods.
“From the onset, I deny generally and specifically every allegation contained in the complaint and urge that the complaint be dismissed in it’s entirely,” Justice Kebonang stated. The Judge, speaking about his recusal and complaint which emanates from a 2021 case between Samson Moyo Guma and FNBB and Others, stated that the complaint filed was long and contained in large parts legal arguments about the correctness or otherwise of the judgments/rulings he has issued in the course of his management of the case. In response, Justice Kebonang said he was not going to engage in a legal contest with the complainant about the correctness or otherwise of the decisions he made or validate the arguments by the complainant. “The process by which an unfavourable judicial decision is overturned or set aside is by a way of judicial process and not an administrative complaint,” he said.
About the complaint, Justice Kebonang submitted that the complainant did not copy him into the complaint or accord him an opportunity to respond to it but said instead few minutes after filing the compliant with CJ’s office, Bookbinder and/or Bookbinder employees and/or FNBB (the complainant) immediately embarked on a sinister and malicious campaign. He argued that without justification, leaked the complaint and distributed it to all the media houses and that he was called by three media houses who specifically told him that Bookbinder Attorneys had forwarded the complaint to them to publish. “Bookbinder Business Law and/or the complainant did not just stop at circulating the complaint with the media houses, they also placed it in various social media platforms and the lawyers' Whatsapp communication platform,” said Kebonang. In the letter, he noted that he became aware of the extent of the leak when a colleague in Namibia sent him the complaint, one in the United States of America and the other in Australia also sent him and that as it was and continues to be available on social media platforms. He explained that the leaking of the complaint and its coordinated distribution was not accidental but deliberately engineered and calculated to cause maximum harm. The judge said it was done with ulterior motives and spite and was retaliatory to the ruling he had given against FNBB on March 6, 2024. On allegations that he usurped the case from Justice Segopolo, he said it was a brazen lie stating that the specific case he presided over was never allocated to Justice Segopolo. “It came as an urgent application on October 4, 2021 and was allocated to my court as evidenced by the attached letter bearing his name. That the complainant would have preferred it to be placed before Judge Segopolo or to be heard by him is a different matter. Such preference does not make the allocation to me usurpation,” he said.
Responding to allegations of delay, the judge explained that for Bookbinder Business Law to say he has delayed or sat on issuing an order when they knew the true state of affairs was beyond words. He labelled it as evil and wicked saying he hopes it is not a reflection of who they are. Addressing his recusal, JusticeKebonang said given the malicious conduct and smear campaign gleefully orchestrated by Bookbinder/or the Bank, it became impossible to preside over the case without accusations of impartiality now being levelled by either party. “As a matter of conscience too, I could not preside over the case with the complaint hanging over my head,” he argued. Justice Kebonang pointed out that no case of misconduct has been made by the complainant and that there can be no misconduct in presiding over a matter that was properly allocated to him. He said equally there can be no misconduct in accommodating the delays caused by the litigants themselves in their filing of numerous interlocutory applications.
“I urge the Chief Justice to dismiss the complaint in its entirety. It is without merit and has been set in motion by the complainant/s to achieve a devious end. However, many pages they may have written and whatever insulting language they may use, they know that they have knowingly filed a false complaint,” JusticeKebonang said.
The judge further stated that until the complaint is either dismissed or withdrawn, he will find it difficult to preside over any matter involving the complainant either now or in the foreseeable future. In conclusion, Kebonang noted that he takes no issue with a complaint being filed in good faith but takes great exception to false accusations.