06 Feb 2017

The 2017 Legal Year proceedings kicks off at the Gaborone High Court premises on Tuesday February 7, where Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo is expected to give an overview of the performance of the judiciary.

The event will be attended by among others President Lt. General Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama, Cabinet Ministers, members of the diplomatic corps and the legal fraternity.

Justice Dibotelo is also expected to deliberate on the successes and challenges of the judiciary system and also update the nation on the development projects and plans earmarked for this Legal Year.

The chief justice is highly anticipated to give an update on the current extension of the Broadhurst Magistrate Court, which is being extended from its current four court room facility to a 10 court room facility.

The court will also have more office space for the support staff.

On the same breadth, last year the chief justice decried the status of Kasane Magistrate Court which he said was deplorable, as rats were ransacking it and destroying files, noting that there was need to vacate the building while awaiting for remedial measures.

The need for office space or establishment of magistrate courts in other parts of the country to make it easy for Batswana and the general populace to access justice never escapes Justice Dibotelo’s attention whenever he gives his speech and this time around it is bound to happen.

In the meantime, Justice Dibotelo will brief attendants on case disposal rate which has been a subject of public debate as some feel that courts take a long time to dispose of cases.

The chief jurist however last year, acknowledged that there was an improvement after employing stringent and robust measures; in particular Judicial Case Management at High Court level and hopefully the same will be extended to lower courts.

Nevertheless, Justice Dibotelo has more than often called for urgent need to avail more resources which include both finance and skilled human resource in order to dispense justice timely and reduce backlog.

It is also anticipated that the chief justice will touch on the performance of Small Claims Court, Stock Theft Court, Special Traffic Court and Child Maintenance Court.

There are currently, two Special Child Maintenance Courts in Gaborone and Francistown and they are yet to be rolled out to other magistrate courts.

Unclaimed child maintenance and guardian fund and administration of deceased estates are also a problem to the justice system.

Chief Justice Dibotelo nonetheless is expected to once again call for financial independence of the judiciary so that most anticipated issues could be met.

In his 2015 speech, he said “limitation in our budget allocations through annual budget ceilings, whilst a part of prudent financial management and unavoidable at times, is increasingly having a serious impact on the ability of the judiciary to operate effectively and efficiently.” ENDS