Four judges won�t offer Dibotelo apology
| Tuesday June 13, 2017 17:01
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) had given the four until June 9, 2017 to tender Dibotelo the apology. A few weeks ago, JSC secretary, Michael Motlhabi served Justices Gaolapelwe Ketlogetswe, Lot Moroka, Godfrey Nthomiwa and Tshepo Motswagole with letters demanding they apologise.
This was after the JSC meeting, which was chaired by Dibotelo. This week sources close to the quartet are adamant that the judges did not heed the call. “It is not true at all that our colleagues apologised to Dibotelo. There is nothing to apologise for,” the source said. Another source said the JSC would have to react. “How? We await their decision.”
The demand for an apology by Dibotelo follows President Ian Khama’s decision in March this year to lift the suspension of the other four judges. He disbanded a tribunal that was appointed to enquire into their conduct. On September 1, 2015, Khama suspended four judges, Key Dingake, Modiri Letsididi, Mercy Garekwe and Ranier Busang for alleged misconduct after it was found that they were paid undue housing allowances.
The four had been at loggerheads with Dibotelo, who had reported them to the police to investigate them for earning housing allowances despite being accommodated in government houses. After Dibotelo reported the quartet to the police for investigation, 12 judges wrote to the JSC to start impeachment proceedings against CJ. The petitioners accused Dibotelo of being hell-bent on destroying some of his colleagues’ careers.
The suspended quartet and the Administration of Justice (AoJ) this year smoked the peace pipe, which led to a decision that the suspended four judges return to work in due course. It later emerged three of the 12 petitioners have since withdrawn from the judges’ petition.
These were Justices Kholisani Solo, Barnabas Nyamadzabo and Bengbame Sechele. Their colleague, Justice Michael Leburu reportedly made a verbal apology to Dibotelo, joining the three of his peers who similarly manoeuvred after the famous blow-up in the judiciary in 2015. Motlhabi has always insisted that “the deliberations of the Judicial Service Commission are private and confidential, they are not for public consumption hence”, in response to queries related to the JSC.