Former High Court judge Marumo dies

Mbongeni Mguni | Thursday July 17, 2014 11:12

 

At the time of his death, Marumo was a practising private attorney at his firm, Marumo Legal Consultants. He also chaired the Law Society of Botswana’s Disciplinary Committee.

In a glittering career spanning several decades, Marumo served as High Court Judge between October 2000 and April 2006, where he distinguished himself as one of the hardest working on the bench.

In a previous interview with Mmegi after his retirement, Marumo told of how during his High Court years, he had produced more than “500 detailed judgements of between 40 and 60 pages, not even counting cases disposed of by way of order”.

During his career, he was also acting Judge of both the Court of Appeal and Industrial Court and was also the Chairperson of the Law Reporting Committee of Botswana.

Marumo was also the former Deputy Chairperson of the Law Society and the Director of Legal Affairs at the African Renaissance Institute. In his latter years as a private attorney, Marumo was involved in several high profile cases, including the late Louis Nchindo’s corruption case and most recently the attempt by the Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana to register as a society. Former Law Society of Botswana chairman, Omphemetse Motumise described Marumo as “highly competent and principled”.

“It’s certainly with profound shock that we have learnt of his passing and he was a towering legal professional in our jurisdiction,” Motumise said.

“He proved himself both on the bench and in private practice as highly competent and principled.

“We will sorely miss him and we send our condolences to his family.”

For his part, local lawyer, Busang Manewe, said Marumo had been a treasure to the local legal fraternity. “I learnt of his passing this morning and I would say it’s a loss to his family, the whole legal fraternity and the nation at large,” he said.

“I knew him as a legal practitioner and a judge.

“He was one of the rare breed of judges who was a gentleman and fiercely independent in thought. He was not afraid to rock the boat.

“It is the independence and liberal views which set him apart from other judges.”

Arrangements for Marumo were unclear as at Press time yesterday.