05 Feb 2015

The Guardian’s Fund at the Office of the Master of the High Court is said to be overflowing as  few claimants are coming forth to make their claims while on one hand the fund continues to grow by the year.

Speaking at the official opening of the 2015 legal year in Gaborone, Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo said as at November 24 last year, the abandoned funds stood at P14 million.

Justice Dibotelo regretted that the amount of money in the Guardian’s Fund, administered by the Master’s offices at the Gaborone and Francistown Divisions of the High Court continued to grow. He said in 2012, the fund stood at P198.7 million and P65.5 million respectively.

The latest figures as at January 29, 2015 showed that the fund had grown to P275.5 million for the Master’s office in Gaborone whilst the figure for Francistown had gone down since November 2014 by P2 million and stood at P78 000 as at January 29, 2015. 

He lamented that the efficient management of this continuously growing fund remains a serious challenge for the office of the Master in the absence of corresponding human resource and capacity with the required expertise.

Justice Dibotelo however noted that despite the challenges faced by the office of the Master; the office continued to provide essential services for Batswana.

He therefore reminded Batswana that writing a will or testament on how one would want to bequeath what he left behind in his life time was no longer ‘a thing of the white man”; neither was it “a Bad Omen”. 

Mr Dibotelo noted that to the contrary, it made the distribution and management of what you would have left behind much easier. It reduced many legal disputes which normally ensued once one had departed.

On a positive note, Mr Dibotelo reiterated his commitment to continue supporting and working with the Law Society of Botswana (LSB) as a partner institution in driving each other’s mandate in a more cordial and mutually beneficiary manner. 

He said the Law Society as in most jurisdictions in the Commonwealth and beyond remained a key stakeholder of the judiciary.The Chief Justice also thanked the LSB for their improved working relationship with the judiciary under the stewardship of the current chairperson, Mr Lawrence Lecha, who was re-elected late last year in Kasane. 

On other issues, he called for the increased resourcing of their key stakeholders in the justice system and other support structures of the judiciary such as the Botswana Police, Directorate of Public Prosecutions, Attorney General and the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime so as to execute their respective yet common mandates. 

“These institutions play a critical role and we are greatly indebted to them for their cooperation, support and contribution they have and continue to extend to us,” he said. ENDS