We don't care what the lawyers say; we want honesty

Editor | Friday August 3, 2007 00:00

The Vision, either deliberately or unintentionally, omits to refer directly to the inseparability of the virtue of 'honesty' from the quality of 'good citizenship'.

Seemingly, when legal minds do meet in the country's chosen adversarial juridicial system, the first victim of most proceedings is the virtue of honesty.

In other words, the law does not really care whether the claimant to the millions for work done is honest or not.  It does not care whether the Gaborone City Council was honest in the discharge of its responsibilities when entering into contract with Daisy Loo for the cleaning of a portion of land near the north-south highway named after the venerable Nelson Mandela.

What the courts and the lawyers will primarily be concerned with is what the paperwork says.

The facts point to the fact that two years ago, a claim for about 24 million Pula was submitted to the council for work done at the spot referred to above.  Everything points to the fact that the council acknowledges its obligation to pay for the work presumably done, and that, having failed to persuade Daisy Loo to accept council offer, it deposited P21 million in an interest bearing account in a bank in Gaborone.  With interest accrued over the years when the legal wrangling was continuing - and it does not look like there is any end in sight to the tug of war - the cheque is now worth over P25 million.

With a little honesty, would it not have been possible for the Gaborone City Council and Daisy Loo to admit error in their dealings and, simply on that basis, to agree on a less preposterous figure?

Not for the sake of the city council, but in order to save painfully earned taxpayer's money. Even after the court of appeal judgement, the circus continues  and the tax payer continues to pay for this sordid affair.

If this is all wishful thinking, we can't help but ponder that Vision 2016, minus the virtue of honesty and good citizenship, is but a pipedream.

                                     Today's Thought
If we were not under the spell of lawyers and law courts, and if there were no touts to tempt us into the quagmire of the courts and the appeal to our basest passions, we would be leading a much happier life than we do.
                                      Mahatma Gandhi