“We were looking at building the court on the piece of land owned by the Catholic Church in Kgale, but so far have not managed to obtain the plot,” said the Master and Registrar of the High Court Godfrey Ntlhomiwa.
According to Ntlhomiwa the court has made appeals to government to expedite the process of land acquisition so that construction could start immediately. At the opening of the legal year, the Chief Justice called on the government to urgently attend to the procurement of a plot in Gaborone.
He denied allegations that the High Court will be relocated to Gaborone from Lobatse.
“We are only building a division of the High Court, similar to the one in Francistown. The headquarters will still remain in Lobatse,” he said.
Ntlhomiwa said the decision to build the High Court division in Gaborone emanates from recommendation of the Justice Aguda Commission of 1996.
Currently, the High Court operates from eight courtrooms including the Appeals Court’ courtroom. It is this situation that Nthomiwa said is not helping the delivery of justice. With the construction of another division in Gaborone, he said, the backlog of cases would be substaintially reduced.
