High Court dismisses Mogalakwe again
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday June 12, 2020 12:41
This follows Mogalakwe’s defeated attempt in a High Court case in which he was seeking leave to urgently appeal the decision of the court in relation to his petition against the 2019 General Election outcome in a ward he contested in.
His initial election appeal was dismissed by the High Court early in the year.
“Even if we lost our case today (Wednesday) it does not mean we cannot appeal to the Court of Appeal. I believe we have a case and I will advise my client that we pursue the matter. My client will give me an instruction on how best we deal with this issue,” Kgoadi told Mmegi.
Botswana Democratic Party’s (BDP) lawyer, Busang Manewe told the court they were dealing with a straight and forward issue.
'We are here on two points, which are urgency and whether this matter is supposed to be in this court or not. The applicant has approached the wrong court and this matter is not urgent because the judgement was delivered on February 12, 2020. The lawyer should have known better and a law student would know this. Therefore, this court should not entertain this application because the applicant could have filed the matter at the Court of Appeal,' Manewe submitted. He added that there is no explanation for “this evidently lackadaisical attitude and why it took 18 days to file the supposedly urgent matter is left for speculation”.
The BDP attorney said the court had at first advised that both parties discuss the matter, but they made a draft that Mogalakwe’s attorneys refused to sign though they had advised them that they would not have a case.
'The cost should be awarded on attorney and client scale because the applicant was negligent and reckless when filling the matter.'
However, Kgoadi said they were simply requesting the High Court to seek authority from the Court of Appeal to hear the matter. “His Lordships are ex officio members of the Court of Appeal, who in this case, are familiar with the facts of the case, all the legal issues involved, and the arguments advanced for and against all these and other aspects, they saw the witnesses personally and had to sit continually even over weekends, and are, as a result, able to have better appreciation of the exceptional circumstances that the petitioner alleges exist,” Kgoadi said.
Mogalakwe lost his election petition case with cost early in the year in a case in which he wanted the outcome of the October 23, 2019 general election for Mosolotshane-Moralane ward in the Shoshong constituency to be declared null and void as he said the polls were not free and fair.
He is also a former councillor of the said ward. A panel of three Justices, Gaopalelwe Ketlogetswe, Itumeleng Segopolo and Omphemetse Motumise, dismissed the leave to appeal. They will give reasons at a later date.