More skeletons tumble out AoJ�s closet
Staff Writer | Friday May 20, 2016 15:11
The suspended four High Court judges, Key Dingake, Modiri Letsididi, Mercy Garekwe and Ranier Busang, assert that Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo is out to destroy their careers.
The judges claim that this is on account that it continues to emerge that more judges were erroneously paid housing allowances while residing in government provided accommodation.
This follows the preliminary audit used by Dibotelo to defend the preliminary suspension application, which was decided against the four Judges by their colleague Justice Tebogo Tau.
Evidence has emerged of another judge, Terrence Rannowane, who received housing allowance while at the Francistown High Court. Rannowane resided in an institution house until such time that he bought the same property.
The Administration of Justice (AoJ) is still to rebut this evidence.
The audit also omitted Rannowane though his case should not have been difficult to discern from the documentation the auditors purported to have had access to in order to complete their mandate.
No explanation has been offered as to why the audit omitted Rannowane. Worse still, despite the case of the four judges having been made public, others are kept out of the public domain.
If the Chief Justice is indeed not targeting the quartet, having already exposed them, he should also be in a position to do the same with those whose names have emerged pertaining to this matter, to the public.
Needless to say, the office has gone silent on the final audit, if one has been completed at all. In terms of the preliminary audit report, the auditors were continuing their work with respect to all the other judges.
The public therefore, legitimately expected to stealthy appraise and evaluate the final audit results to be reported, but to no avail.
It is not uncommon for the AoJ to make public rebuttals, like it has before following the letter of August 12, 2015 written by the suspended quartet addressed to Dibotelo.
The AoJ’s silence on this particular judge therefore, confirmations that what this publication received information on and published, is the absolute truth. We are left to assume therefore, and reasonably so, that the reasons for the the AoJ’s silence and in particular, Dibotelo, is in bad light. From the information that has since been received by this publication, the final audit will highly likely buttress the four judges’ contention that they are not the only ones affected by the inefficiency bedevilling the AoJ.
What informs our assumption is the fact that further information in this publication’s possession suggests that beyond the mode of payment of housing allowances to the suspended judges and others similarly circumstanced would be revealed in the final audit. There is yet another mode, which has seen several judges pocketing housing allowance whilst residing in accommodation provided by their employer.
Such information reveals that several judges, including some judges of the Court of Appeal (CoA), were paid housing allowances whilst accommodated in hotels. One such judge is Monametsi Gaongalelwe, who has since ascended to the CoA’s bench. Not only that he is also a close acquaintance of the Chief Justice. Gaongalelwe stayed at the Marang Hotel from the period of September 2004 up to March 2008. This translates to a period of three years and seven months. The total amount paid to Gaongalelwe as housing allowance when he was not entitled to such allowance is P201,227. This particular CoA judge, and as discerned from the papers thus far filed with the High Court with respect to the review application, also sat and participated (allegedly by invitation) in one of the meetings of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) though he is not its member. This was at the height of the referral of the housing allowance issue to the police for investigation. One would expect such judge, knowing that his hands are soiled, to have turned down the invitation or better still, to have reminded the commission that the suspended judges were affected the same way he was, at the inefficiency of the AoJ.
This publication has no information as to who extended the invitation to Gaongalelwe.
There are at least two judges currently sitting in Francistown; one in Gaborone, and another in Lobatse, who have benefitted from the erroneous housing allowance payments in a similar fashion. The Lobatse judge, Abednego Tafa has pocketed about P202,676.95, while Rannowane has pocketed about P23,749.80. One wonders why a serious, fair, and objective audit would miss all these other judges even in its preliminary assessment. It appears more skeletons are yet to tumble out of the AoJ’s closet. Will the auditors retain their professional integrity when dealing with this matter or will they be unduly influenced by those who have a lot to lose? This remains to be seen.