Loan sharks' claims taken to court

ISAIAH MOREWAGAE
Staff Writer | Tuesday June 8, 2010 00:00

The bench clerk for the Small Claims Court Sesupo Morongwa says while loan sharks usually demand a high percentage interest from clients, they have to settle for the normal rate of 10 percent when they bring their cases to the court.

Civil disputes involving landlords and their former tenants are also common at the Small Claims Court.

Morongwa says the trend is that landlords require a security deposit of one month's rent when a tenant signs a lease, to cover the possibility that the tenant will move out without paying the last month's rent, or that the tenant will inflict substantial damage on the property while living there.

In such a case, the money from the security deposit is used to cover repairs. However, Morongwa says there is an increasing number of cases where former tenants are suing their former landlords for failing to pay back their security deposits.

He revealed that they have presided over 1,431 of 1,558 cases they have registered since the beginning of the year. He said only 127 cases are still pending. Morongwa added that they carried only 45 cases from last year thus refuting allegations that the Small Claims Court is experiencing a backlog of cases.

The business of the Small Claims Courts started towards the end of last year by the then chief justice Julian Nganunu. The Small Claims Court covers small private disputes in which large amounts of money are not involved; usually a maximum of P10,000.

The collection of small debts forms a large portion of the cases brought before the court, as well as evictions and other disputes between landlords and tenants.

Typically, a Small Claims Court has a maximum monetary limit to the amount of judgments it can award. These limits vary; upper limits are set in thousands of Pula. By suing in a Small Claims Court, the plaintiff typically waives any right to claim more than the court can award.

In some jurisdictions, a party that loses in a Small Claims Court is entitled to a trial de novo in a court of more general jurisdiction and with more formal procedures. The outcome is final and there are no appeals. If a person is charged, they are allowed to pay within a reasonable time, failing which they may be sent to a magistrates' court for civil imprisonment or have their possessions auctioned to recover the debt.

An individual may file at most three claims in a calendar year. The Senior Magistrate, Mareledi Dipate of the Village Magistrates Court, is in charge of the Gaborone court, which sits on a weekly basis.