Judges� lawyer rails against Dibotelo, JSC
Lebogang Mosikare | Wednesday September 27, 2017 14:55
The judges landed in hot soup for refusing to apologise to Dibotelo after they allegedly authored a petition accusing the CJ of tribalism and sabotaging their careers, amongst other remarks.
Recently, the judges, Justices Tshepo Motswagole, Lot Moroka, Gaolapelwe Ketlogetswe and Godfrey Nthomiwa went to court asking for the review and setting aside of the Judicial Service Commission’s (JSC) decision to open and continue with an investigation against them.
The respondents in the matter are the JSC, Dibotelo in his capacity as the chairperson of the JSC, and the Attorney General (AG) respectively as the principal legal advisor to the government.
“The decision to open an investigation against the applicants is irrational and illegal because it was not done promptly,” argued Wada Nfila, the quartet’s lawyer.
“The second respondent admits in his founding affidavit that it is trite law that this must be done promptly.”
The petition against Dibotelo was authored in August 2015, while the JSC met on May 12 and August 19, 2017 to consider the four judges utterances against the CJ, Nfila said.
“These meetings were presided over by a chairperson and a decision was taken to investigate the applicants.
“There has been a delay to bring this matter to finality and we submit that the justification for the delay is a matter for review application. “The JSC turned the complaint against the applicants into a charge, and we submit that a complaint without much ado cannot be turned into a charge.
“We also submit that the first and second respondents are using their powers for an improper purpose.” State counsel, Ndiye Balule said the judges’ arguments were without merit.
“The applicants are saying that the matter is too old and should just die a natural death. However, the disparaging remarks that the applicants made about the CJ should not be allowed to die a natural death without a logical conclusion.
“The judges sat on their rights and should have protested if they felt that the matter was taking too long to be concluded. ”
Justice Phadi Solomon will deliver the ruling on the matter on October 4.