Tension brews between High Court, Appeals Judges
Friday, June 26, 2020
Judges during the Ocassion of the Opening of the Legal Year PIC: KENNEDY RAMOKONE
In the prevailing set up, the Law Society of Botswana (LSB) has always advocated for a transparent process of appointment of Judges, which includes advertising the vacancies as they become available. For instance, while the process was used to appoint High Court Judges and Magistrates, the same could not be said for appointment of Justices to the Court of Appeal (CoA) bench.
The LSB found this step to be regressive and serving no purpose. Last year it said: “The new procedure will make the process more opaque in an era where everyone is routing for transparency.
That a single private law firm pocketed P6.5 million for just four cases, out of a total P11.1 million paid for 25 matters, reeks of a system that was not merely disorganised but open to abuse.Bayford has taken a welcome first step by telling the Public Accounts Committee the truth. Now he must act decisively to ensure it never happens again and that any money lost to wrongdoing is recovered.The figures are staggering. Whilst ordinary Batswana...