07 Mar 2013

The Attorney General’s Chambers is faced with a lot of challenges as criminals engage the services of experienced advocates after stealing from the poor.

The MP for Ngwaketse West, Mr Mephato Reatile said this in Parliament when debating the department’s budget requests on Wednesday.

He noted that because of the high staff turnover of experienced personnel at the department, this meant that the remaining lawyers at AGs were overwhelmed with a large number of cases.

Mr Reatile also lashed at private lawyers who represented alleged criminals, saying they should follow the example of Indian lawyers who boycotted men who had raped and killed an innocent victim.

The MP for Mahalapye East, Ms Botlogile Tshireletso, also local government and rural development assistant minister applauded the Attorney General for being instrumental in the establishment of the legal aid which would assist the poor to access quality legal services.

The project, he mentioned, had already assisted one woman whose inheritance rights were being undermined by her in-laws after the death of her husband. The project, he highlighted, would assist women who were at the receiving end of being denied their rights.

She urged the minister to speed up the process of relieving the police from prosecution duties so that experienced lawyers at the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) could take over cases.

The MP said that though the police had done a good job for many years, it was time they focused on their core mandate.

South East South MP, Mr Odirile Motlhale decried the fact that there was only one parliamentary legal counsel who was overwhelmed with requests for legal advice from MPs and other parliamentary committees.

He also noted that the success of this department was measured by the number of laws passed by Parliament and requested the minister to address issues of staff attrition.

On other issues, he mentioned that the issue of security for DPP staff needed to be expedited as they were dealing with cases which involved dangerous criminals.

Serowe South MP, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi urged the minister to incorporate marital rape under the domestic violence act, in the light of the advent of HIV and AIDS.

In response, Minister Seretse applauded MPs for realising the challenges faced by this department, noting that this would make things easy for them to support him when requesting additional funding.

He said that the constitution of Botswana presumed everyone innocent until they were proven guilty by the courts, hence even dangerous criminals should have legal representation in court for justice to be served.

He said that high staff turnover was difficult to deal with because of limited financial resources. In the end Parliament approved the budget proposals for the department. ENDS