It was celebration time for the lawyer when Justice Michael Leburu overturned and set aside his conviction and sentence. "Mothusi is back," an ecstatic Mothusi well-wisher said after judgment was delivered. The lawyer moved to the High Court on a constitutional application, arguing that his attempt to appeal the conviction was being frustrated by the inordinate delay in producing case records. Relying on Section 18 (1) of the Constitution, Mothusi argued that the failure to produce the case record amounted to denial of a fair hearing within a reasonable time, as enshrined in the Constitution under Section 10.
During trial, the court had heard that the delay in producing the case record was caused by the transfer of the then presiding magistrate, Nelson Bopa to Lobatse High Court. The transfer of the officer who typed a substantial part of the proceedings (Semmee Mooketsi) to Maun and the boarding of the computer that was used to type the record also caused a delay. It emerged during trial that while Bopa put the delays to the transfers and the boarding of the computer, Mooketsi contradicted him saying she had done all the typing before she moved to Maun and saved all her work on an electronic disk, which she said she left with Bopa.
