15 Apr 2019

Woodhall Customary Court in Lobatse is sitting on debts of more than P800 000 emanating from arbitration cases, says its president, Mr Mpaesele Itumeleng

Speaking at a kgotla meeting addressed by Lobatse mayor, Ms Malebogo Kruger in Woodhall recently, Mr Itumeleng said some debts dated back to when the court became operational.

He said the debts accumulated because in some cases, debtors ignored court orders to pay up while in others people struggled to pay because they did not have the means.

Some debtors had not paid because their whereabouts were not known and could therefore not be traced, Mr Itumeleng added.

Consequently, Mr Itumeleng said the court was in the process of devising strategies to ensure that people found guilty in arbitration cases cleared their debts saying one of the interventions being considered was to confiscate the culprits’ property which would only be returned after debts had been cleared.

“One of the things we are thinking about is to take some property from people who the court has ordered to pay fines and keep that property while they source funds to pay their fines. After the period given to them to have paid had lapsed the court would then auction that property if they had not paid,” he said.

He said the move would ensure that culprits paid so that complainants got their dues.

On another matter, Mr Itumeleng expressed concern about the increasing number of people who applied for permits to sell homemade brews from their homesteads. ENDS