Boko Expresses Discomfort With AG
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Monday March 13, 2017 16:42
The Umbrella for Democratic Change president, also Member of Parliament for Gaborone Bonnington North said this when debating the Committee of Supply of the Administration of Justice (AoJ) presented by the Minister of Defence, Justice and Security to Parliament this week.
He said over long period of time members of the executive and civil servants have not taken legal advises from the AG or government legal representatives. He said this has made government lose a lot of money in the process.
“It is also important to appreciate that lately and in fact over a long period of time we have had experiences of members of the executive and civil servants, not taking advice from the government legal representatives or advisors. They should take legal advice from the AG because they are not lawyers and experts. Government is losing a lot of money,” he said.
Boko said they have experienced instances in the courts, where attorneys representing government have been asked by judges if they had advised their bosses to settle the matter out of court, but indicated that their advises have been ignored even though they were liable.
“…So, you must advise these people that when they receive legal advice from the Attorney General’s Chambers, they must take it; they are not lawyers and experts.”
He said there is a disturbing trend that those public officers who defy court orders, some of them have had to be threatened with imprisonment. Boko cited the case of the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and the Commander of the Botswana Defence Force who defied court orders allegedly under pressure from their bosses.
“It is extremely untidy when public officers disrespect pronouncements of the courts. It is also disrespectful of the professionals employed by government when public officers disregard the legal advice that these officers have given them and cases end up in court, which they should have settled.
Government incurs heavy costs as they did last week Friday in Francistown, when the High Court pronounced that the Presidential Directive that ordered the slaughter of cattle in Zone 6 was unconstitutional and unlawful”.
Boko also complained of the failure by the AoJ to timeously and efficiently produce the record of proceedings of trials that have taken place before. He said that this has denied those who have been sentenced the right to appeal. He also said that this constitutes gross inefficiency of the court reporting clerks and the stenographers that operate, especially at the magistrate courts.