Law Society gets Botswana support

MBABANE - The Law Society of Botswana (LSB) has thrown its weight behind the Law Society of Swaziland in its stance against controversial Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi.

The LSB issued a statement, blasting Ramodibedi who is also sitting in that country’s Court of Appeal.

The Botswana lawyers say they are concerned that Ramodibedi’s sense of justice and democracy is "warped and may find its way into our jurisprudence, we hope not and will guard against that."

In the statement, signed by Executive Secretary Tebogo Moipolai, the Law Society of Botswana says it has been following the judicial events in the country and fully supports the Law Society of Swaziland and the citizens of Swaziland in the fight to protect and enhance the rule of law in Swaziland.

"The Law Society of Botswana has been following with keen interest the evolving situation in Swaziland where a judge has been charged with 12 charges which are in the view of the Law Society of Swaziland, SADC Lawyers Association and other observers patently spurious. The judge has further been suspended pending the decision of the Judicial Service Commission on these charges. The SADC Lawyers Association, to which the Law Society of Botswana belongs, has issued a statement in which it condemns the charges and labels them as ‘assault on the judiciary and rule of law in Swaziland’. We unreservedly associate ourselves with these sentiments," said the LSB.

The Botswana lawyers say Justice Thomas Masuku’s charges have elicited interest in Botswana because the Chief Justice who has proffered these charges on behalf of the JSC is a sitting judge of the Court of Appeal of Botswana and Judge Masuku was, until recently, a judge of the High Court of Botswana.

"The Law Society would like to think that the Honourable Ramodibedi JA, as a member of our Court of Appeal should inspire confidence in all of us who believe in judicial independence, the rule of law and democratic governance. The world has shrunk into a very small global village of which the BOLESWA countries are only a tiny ward. Our fear is that Honourable Ramodibedi’s way of doing things and the way he understands democracy (in the eyes of the beholder) is inimical to the development of a progressive judicial system that we would love to see for this country (Botswana) and indeed within and outside the BOLESWA region," said the LSB.

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