The chairperson of Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) has been decrying the fact that he was being forced to continue with the appeal despite his desire to forego it. Morupisi’s attorney, Busang Manewe, told the bench of Justices, comprising Lakhvinder Singh Walia, Baaitse Nkabinde and court president Tebogo Tau that they have issues as to how they needed to proceed with the appeal. “I have been having issues with my client. Our issues have been on the appeal itself and if my client continues with me or not. It's only late yesterday that we came to some sort of an agreement and as it is, since it was late we are not ready,” he said.
Manewe also said he felt imprisoned by the rules of court as he is not able to withdraw his services with his client even if they do not agree on things. He cited that rule 14 (5) (a) (b) was his worst nightmare as it has so far prevented him from recusing himself from the appeal to allow his client to decide if he wants to continue with him or not. The rule reads as, “(5) (a) Save in exceptional circumstances, no legal practitioner representing an appellant or a respondent in an appeal in any session shall withdraw his or her services after the publication of the roll for that session in the Gazette and (b) any withdrawal thereafter shall be permissible only with the leave of the court, which may be granted by a single judge, for good cause shown.” Manewe, in trying to seek for a postponement said he did not understand how the rules of court have imprisoned some so much that he would even be forced to litigate against his wishes. In the end, despite the efforts of Morupisi’s attorney to postpone the matter, the bench adjourned for five minutes and came back to insist that the appeal proceeds as scheduled.
The CoA president, Tau, told Morupisi that the appeal has been ripe since February 2024 when it was scheduled for the January/February session and that nothing will prevent it from continuing. In that instance, Manewe said then it meant they will not participate, much to the ‘okay’ answer from the judges. The State had to continue alone after indicating earlier that they were ready to argue the matter. Though they stuck to the documents they had filed, attorney Kentse Molome corrected a few things in their papers, something which raised few questions from the judge. Some of the questions that the judges asked was why former Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF) acting CEO, Lesedi Moakofi, was pulled off from the list of witnesses. The bench wanted to know if her being pulled off witnesses' list was not prejudicial to their case. The State clarified that she had refused to testify as an accomplice witness therefore, that was the reason why she was charged separately. At the end judgment was set for a date to be announced. Before the appeal, Morupisi had filed an application for leave to withdraw his appeal on reasons among others being financial exhausted. He had tried before to withdraw the appeal but was told he did not follow court rules by seeking leave first, of which he rectified the mistake.
Last Friday, Justice Nkabinde denied Morupisi leave, saying despite him complaining of delays in prosecuting his appeal, he has failed to make out a case for leave to be granted in terms of the rules of court. "The applicant has complained about delays in prosecuting his appeal. If all the steps taken by him do not constitute tardiness, I do not know what they are. The delay in finalising the appeal, which was ripe for hearing as of February 1, 2024, is attributed to the applicant and no one else," she said at the time. She had explained in the judgment that the array of explanations by Morupisi as to why he is entitled to be granted leave to withdraw were irrelevant and potentially false for the purpose of determining whether leave should be granted especially when the court had already informed the parties that consideration was being given to vary the sentence imposed by High Court. Justice Nkabinde argued that the reason for Morupisi to seek leave to withdraw the appeal when the court was seized with the appeal was and still is to thwart any such consideration. "I hold this view because the notice of withdrawal was only filed approximately three weeks later and this application was launched on June 24, 2024 about five months later," Justice Nkabinde said.
Meanwhile, in his appeal Morupisi wanted to overturn his conviction. He was convicted on two counts of corruption and one count for money laundering. On count one, he was sentenced to two years imprisonment wholly suspended for three years on condition that he did not commit the same offence. On count two, he was fined P50, 000 or five years imprisonment should he default, while on count three, he was fined P80, 000 or eight years imprisonment, should he default. He was further given 90 days to pay while the Toyota Land Cruiser, said to be proceeds of crime, was forfeited to the State and that is where his appeal was launched.
