11 Jan 2018

At least 10 students and two law professors of University of Southern Illinois Law School in United States of America (USA) paid a courtesy call to acting Chief Justice, Mr Abednigo Tafa at Gaborone High Court on January 10.   

The visit, which is the third by students from the same university since 2015, was aimed at familiarising the students with court processes and the rule of law in Botswana.

The visit was made possible by Law Society of Botswana (LSB) and Chibanda Makgalemele Attorneys were mandated to facilitate it. 

Meanwhile, Justice Tafa who was accompanied by deputy Registrar of the High Court, Mr Mompati Taolo told the visitors that case disposal at both the High Court and Court of Appeal had significantly improved ever since they implemented Judicial Case Management (JCM) system in 2008, which they benchmarked in the US.     

He said the system had afforded litigants to had their cases heard on reasonable time especially at the Court of Appeal, which was currently dealing with appeals from cases disposed in 2016 and 2017 respectively. 

Justice Tafa however decried that appeals from magistrate courts took long to be heard at the High Court because rulings and proper composition of cases had to be followed before the file could be summited at the High Court. 

He explained that this was so because of limited resources at the lower courts. 

Justice Tafa further acknowledged that magistrate courts handled the bulk of cases in the land and in some instances, cases might delay in the process.

The visitors acknowledged that there were some striking similarities in the filing and procedures of the High Court, more especially the JCM, video conferencing and audio recording of court proceedings. 

They were however thrilled to learn that the High Court was made of 100 per cent locals, while the Court of Appeal had four resident judges; and the rest as and when they were required while plans to localise it were in place. 

They further learnt that usually there were no assessors at the High Court except on exceptional cases where an expert on a particular field was needed.

 For his part, Mr Tebogo Moipolai of LSB informed the visitors that though the country had not yet reached the stage of providing legal counsel 100 per cent for every litigant, the country had established the legal aid, which assisted deserving individuals according to their rating.

With regard to those facing offences that attracted capital punishment and life imprisonment, he said they were provided with legal representation by the State. The visitors were also taken on a tour of the High Court.

The entourage also visited the Court of Appeal, which is currently sitting. 

They however could not visit the holding cells as prison inmates who had come for their appeals were already occupying them. ENDS