06 Feb 2019

Chairperson of Law Society of Botswana (LSB) Mr Diba Diba says the society has, in recent times, been receiving formal reports on the misconduct of some legal practitioners through judgements. 

He commended such action saying it assisted the profession to correct and build itself, adding that the society would continue taking such reports seriously and act on them accordingly within the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act (LPA). 

Mr Diba however, requested the Administration of Justice to pay close attention to a phenomenon that they had talked about in the past, but continued to exist, especially that the Magistrate Court judicial officers were at times discourteous and sometimes downright disrespectful to legal practitioners, their clients and even members of the public. 

He regretted that members of the public were threatened with arrests and/or removal from the court, sometimes for such benign conduct as reading a newspaper in court. 

In addition, he said police officers and other court staff were routinely threatened with arrest. 

 The youthful Diba, who assumed the office last December, taking over from Attorney Kgalalelo Monthe, said therefore the office of a judge or magistrate required a mature, sober and measured character and not one given to emotive temperament and/or inclined to play to the gallery. 

He said legal practitioners and members of the public deserved respect and if none was forthcoming, they would lose their respect for the courts in general and ultimately the rule of law. 

Mr Diba however said he was happy to learn that the concern had been receiving attention from the Chief Justice. 

On other issues, he noted with concern that the state of legal practice in Botswana contributed significantly to the country’s low ratings as shown in the international ratings for Anti-Money Laundering and control of illicit financial flows by Financial Action Task Force based in Paris. 

He said the society was concerned about this and would do all that was necessary to assist the country to achieve compliance, which he said would include training for members in this area and by ensuring a more robust regulatory framework. 

He further informed the audience who included President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi and First Lady Neo Masisi, that they have had engagements with the Financial Intelligence Agency and look forward to further collaboration and training, especially on the recently amended Act. 

He said in terms of LPA, trust accounts of legal practitioners are only intended to be used for receiving or holding money, which is to be held in trust for a particular purpose connected with the practice of the attorney. It  is also stipulated that it is an offence punishable by a fine and/or imprisonment if an attorney contravenes the provision. 

Meanwhile, Mr Diba said the LPA had been overtaken by the times, but said he was most grateful that after 10 years of trying, without success, to have the Act amended, they had the government assurance that the amendment would be placed before Parliament during the course of this year. 

The society requests legal practitioners, the judiciary stakeholders and the public at large to look out for the publication of the Bill so that they can comment on it, he said. 

The LSB chairperson again warned the public to be wary of fraudsters masquerading as attorneys and some calling themselves paralegals. 

On foreign issues, he express the society’s wishes to outrage and pain at the evident break down of the rule of law in Zimbabwe. He said while they did not condone violent protests, they called on the government of Botswana and SADC to condemn, without equivocation, the reported abduction of political opponents, the atrocities against the slaughter of citizens and the rape of women. 

“We cannot, and our government and SADC cannot, afford to be silent. The horrors of Gukurahundi are too fresh in the memory to allow another one to unfold. As Martin Luther King Jr said, ‘there comes a time when silence is betrayal,’” Mr Diba said. BOPA