Boko tackles Khama over Judicial crisis
Oarabile Mosikare | Friday December 9, 2016 15:42
“It is now more than a year and four months since the judiciary of this country was thrown into a crisis that saw 12 Judges of the High Court petition the Chief Justice (CJ), Maruping Dibotelo, over generalised discontent at the state of the Judiciary as well as the erroneous payment of housing allowances to some judges,” Boko said. The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) leader said the petition by 12 Judges resulted in bully boy tactics that saw humiliating backsliding by some, wilting under intense pressure and dictation, as well as the suspension of four others by the President.
The four Judges; Key Dingake, Modiri Letsididi, Mercy Garekwe and Ranier Busang, were suspended last year September by the President for alleged misconduct after it was found that they were paid undue housing allowances. A tribunal was appointed to enquire into their conduct.
The quartet had been at loggerheads with CJ, who had reported them to the Botswana Police Service to investigate them for earning housing allowances despite being accommodated in government houses.
It emerged this year that two other Justices, one from the High Court, and the other from the Court of Appeal, also benefited from the undue housing allowances. Conversely, Dibotelo did not suspend or report them to the police. The four suspended Judges have since instituted legal proceedings to challenge their suspension.
Boko said: “This case has seen the most blatant disregard of elementary principles of justice and fairness where the CJ, who is party to the litigation, saw fit to empanel a team of Judges to preside over the case. The salutary adage that justice must not only be done, it must manifestly be seen to be done, seems to elude the Judiciary in this case”.
Boko said this is an embarrassing and most damaging blight on Judiciary. A blatant corrosion of the integrity of the Judiciary by the Executive, he said. “We now have a Judiciary at war with itself. The rest of the Judges who signed the petition against the CJ, and who have not been suspended, present another challenge, which plunges the entire Judiciary further into the muck and mire. Does the fact of their favourable treatment by the same President that suspended their brethren not compromise them and render them favourably disposed toward the Executive in some quid pro quo? How can an ordinary citizen, or any litigant, trust such a Judiciary to dispense justice without fear and without reproach?”
He called upon Khama “to speak to these embroilments and conundrums” if only to assure the nation if this Judiciary could still be looked upon to discharge the onerous and solemn duty of upholding the Constitution and the rule of law without fear, favour or ill-will.
“We in the UDC do not agree that it’s enough for the President to tell us about physical infrastructure: how many courtrooms are being built without speaking to the grave and fundamental challenges facing the Judiciary.”
Boko explained that the Judiciary is a key institution in any democracy. Any threat to its independence, stability and integrity is a matter that must rank as the highest priority, and warrant immediate resolution, he said.