CJ looks into allegations against CoA judges
Sharon Mathala | Monday July 24, 2023 06:00
The complaints came in the wake of an appeal case by diamond company, Debswana against the spy company, its former service provider.
Although he was reluctant to shed light on the investigations, Rannowane confirmed this week that he has the matter on his desk and is treating it with the utmost sensitivity. The CJ said he is investigating the allegations.
“I am and have started to investigate the allegations in the complaint letter. I cannot for now, without prejudicing the matter share any more information on it until we have finalised it,” the CJ told Mmegi.
Pressed further, the CJ said he will share how the investigation will be conducted and when he expects to have completed his investigation since the judgment in the matter is expected soon.
“My main concern is not the outcome of the judgment. My concern is the truth. My concern is to investigate if the integrity of court processes was flouted. What I will then do afterwards, like you are asking, I can only answer when investigations are complete,” the CJ added.
The matter comes after an appeal by the Diamond giant, Debswana in a matter that it is pitted against the local spy firm. The former attempts to salvage losses after the lower court granted Infotrac P110 million in payments that it had prayed for.
Debswana's move to the Court of Appeal comes after losing the case in 2022 and the High Court ruled that it should pay a local company, Infotrac, P110 million for business dealings that took place in 2018 that involved lobbying powerful personalities.
Meanwhile, Mmegi reached out to the Law Society of Botswana (LSB), about a circulating letter containing a flurry of complaints against the CoA judges and they responded: “Please note that this is a matter/complaint before the Chief Justice and the LSB does not know the other side’s story to form a view as to whether an investigation is warranted or whether there was a miscarriage of justice from the proceedings.”
In a letter addressed to Chief Justice, the spy company has raised unconfirmed allegations against Justice Lakhvinder Singh Walia and the CoA judge president Justice Tebogo Tau.
“We refer to the Debswana Vs Infotrac appeal case which is riddled with violations of principles of natural justice,” the complaint to the CJ states.
The spy company alleges that Walia "failed” to disclose interest in the matter.
“Justice Walia is a former employee and partner at Armstrongs. Not only that, his wife, Theresa Walia, to date is also actively and gainfully employed at Armstrongs Attorneys and counsel Carr Hartley’s personal secretary. There is blatant interest in the matter. Walia benefits from his wife’s gainful employment from the appellant’s (Debswana) Attorney as they share her income as spouses and a household,” the spy agency alleges in its letter.
According to the company, because the judge is married to Debswana lawyer's (Counsel John Carr-Hartley) personal secretary, the judge has been allegedly privy to the case even before it was registered and according to them this reportedly equals, “a gross anomaly that should have been addressed by the court before assigning Justice Walia to the panel presiding over the matter".
They further allege, arguing, “What is further disturbing to note is that having now gone through all correspondences between Infotrac and Armstrongs, we have realised that the correspondences received from Armstrongs were indeed from Theresa Walia, Justice Walia's wife. This means that she has intimate knowledge of all the correspondences between the two parties and it’s most probable that through her secretary role, she would have been the one typing the letters for counsel Carr-Hartley’s signature. It would be reasonable for any ordinary person to believe that Justice Walia had access to and was privy to all material matters relating to this case even before the Court of Appeal.”
The spy agency also alleges that another judge of the panel, President of the Court of Appeal, Tebogo Tau is also allegedly conflicted. In the end, the spy agency wants the CJ to declare the appeal proceedings unlawful.
“A rehearing of the appeal if the judiciary can guarantee that a properly vetted panel of impartial judges will hear the matter,” the company asks.
The CoA is expected to deliver its ruling on August 4.