11 Feb 2018

There are currently no expatriate magistrates employed by government, says  Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Shaw Kgathi.

Mr Kgathi told Parliament on Thursday that when he responded to a question from  MP for Francistown East, Mr Buti Billy in March 2017, he had explained that there were two expatriate magistrates out of a then compliment of 85 magistrates employed by government.

He further stated that the two expatriate magistrates’ contracts of employment expired in August 2017 and were not renewed.

“I assured this house last year that with a pool of local lawyers to fill openings on the bench, there would be no justification for engaging expatriate magistrates,” he said.

He stated that the “magistracy is 100 per cent localised.”

Member of Parliament for Francistown East, Mr Billy had asked the minister to state the total number of expatriate magistrates currently employed by government, and why they still continued to be employed when there were qualified Batswana. Ends