24 Apr 2016

The judiciary on Saturday bid farewell to the High Court Judge, Justice Mpaphi Phumaphi who retires after 13 years of service as a judicial officer.

Justice Phumaphi is one of the early citizen pioneers in the legal profession who attained his law degree in 1974. He worked for government as a state counsel for 20 months from 1974 and started practising on March 31, 1976 with Justice John Mosojane and continued in private practice until he joined the bench.

He was selected as the inaugural chairperson of the Law Society of Botswana in 1996 until the year 2000 and was appointed a judge of the High Court based in Lobatse in October 2002 barely two months after his appointment and posting to Lobatse, he was in November 2002, transferred to the Francistown High Court.

Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo described him as a colossal legal luminary who had quality leadership and a sense of selfless dedication to duty.

He said Justice Phumaphi had set a good example worth emulating in that when one retired or left the bench or magistracy they must timeously complete their cases instead of leaving many part heared cases as some former judicial officers had done resulting in a failure of justice much to the chagrin of the litigants, members of public and the accused persons.

“We need more of these virtues and attributes from all our judicial officers so that the public continue to repose confidence in the legal and justice system,” he added.

Justice Dibotelo noted that he knew Justice Phumaphi both on personal and professional level for many years, saying that they met in 1970 at the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland and in 1973 at Edinburgh, Scotland.

He said they continued to interact as lawyers and as friends and became very close, adding that when Justice Phumaphi became the Judge in charge of the Francistown Division of the High Court, they toured the northern region together attending to operational and other matters to ensure the expeditious delivery of justice.

Furthermore, he said although they had differences based on legal principles, Justice Phumaphi exhibited all the  qualities one  cherished in a judge being patience, firmness, conviction, clarity of thought and a sense of humour.

He singled out one of the cases they worked very closely on and did very well. He said they worked on the Central Kalahari Game Reserve case (CKGR, Roy Sesana/ Basarwa) which when was ripe for trial, as a case of national and public importance, the late former Chief Justice Julian Nganunu empanelled a bench of three senior judges of the high court which consisted of the duo and Judge Unity Dow (as then she was).

The case took almost two years to complete. Chief Justice Dibotelo said towards the end of Justice Phumaphi’s career in 2015, and when Botswana on account of the impartially and reputation of its judiciary was asked by SADC to provide a judge to inquire into the death of former Lesotho Defence Force Commander, Brigadier Moaparankoe Mahao, his name came to his mind as he had confidence in his astuteness, diligence, firmness and conscientiousness.

Justice Dibotelo said he nominated him to the President and he was appointed to chair the inquiry and he represented them well in quelling and stabilising the crisis and the volatile situation that was in Lesotho, adding that they were grateful for that.

He said he wished Justice Phumaphi well as now he would have the time to do what he had always had passion for, cattle farming.

For his part, Justice Phumaphi expressed his gratitude to the successful event and appreciated his present as he shared his experience on the judiciary.

He said one thing he was confident and comfortable about the judiciary in Botswana was that the laws were made according to the constitution with no personal influence and wished that the judiciary remained independent as it played a very important role.

He also pointed out that the best thing that could happen to the judiciary was to have lawyers who were committed to the laws of Botswana. He encouraged those who remained in the judiciary to do their best as they would always have his support. ENDS