According to Morupisi, the two judges previously dealt with a matter involving the State's prosecution organ and Timothy Marsland, former director of the now-liquidated Capital Management Botswana (CMB), a company he was accused of awarding an unauthorised contract to manage pension funds from the Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF). Morupisi was accused of a kickback as valuable interest in the form of a Land Cruiser valued at R630,988.99, which ultimately led to his prosecution and conviction on corruption and money laundering charges. Last Friday, the former PSP was supposed to defend the State's application against his release from jail.
However, through his attorney, Obonye Jonas, he told the court that he was forced to consider moving the application at that time because, before the court appearance, he didn't know who the presiding panel would be. "We would like to seek a postponement to file a recusal application against some of the judges in the panel," Jonas said. He reasoned they only knew about the panel when they arrived in a courtroom comprising justices Dambe, Lesetedi, Edwin Cameron, Johan Froneman, and Goemekgabo Tebogo-Maruping. "We only got to know about the panel when the judges walked into the court, therefore, we couldn't make the recusal application earlier," he said. He also told the court that days before the case, they wrote to Justice Tebogo Tau, the Judge President of the CoA, to enquire about panel members. However, she never responded to their letter of inquiry. In addition, Jonas had also pointed out that in the recusal application, they intended to question the authority of Justice Tau as CoA President to empanel, a challenge he later abandoned. On the one hand, Attorney for the State, Tshiamo Rantao said they would oppose the recusal application once it is filed. "We aren't against their wish to seek postponement. Our interest is to deal with the recusal application which we will oppose,” Rantao said. In the end, the State's main application filed was postponed. Regarding the recusal application, the parties are to file their heads of arguments by Wednesday this week.
The matter will then be heard the following day (Thursday) and the court will determine the main application date for arguments. Meanwhile, the State filed the main application to challenge Morupisi's release indicating that High Court judge Zein Kebonang should have recused himself from the case as he had also dealt with the one involving CMB. The State further argues that the High Court had no right to interfere with a higher court's decision on reasons of hierarchy in the judicial system. For Morupisi's defence, he isn't happy that his case and the ultimate sentence were politically influenced.
He is questioning if, in fact, the President indicated to the CoA that he wasn't happy with the sentence that he got. Morupisi believes that Justice Singh Walia's utterances when he sent him to jail were Executive-influenced and he was simply playing to the gallery. In part, Justice Walia had uttered something in the line that "they don't want to seem like they aren't heading to the President's desire to see corruption ending", something that has irked the Botswana Patriotic Front comrade.
