31 Jul 2022

Members of Parliament on Wednesday endorsed the Legal Practitioners (Amendment) Bill of 2022.

When presenting the bill for the second reading, justice minister, Mr Machana Shamukuni said the objective of the 75-clause bill was to repeal and re-enact with amendments the Legal Practitioners Act, which had been in existence for over two decades.

Mr Shamukuni said the main purpose of the bill was to provide for admission, enrolment and practice of legal practitioners and matters ancillary thereto.

He said the bill sought to ensure high professional standards and integrity in the entire legal profession as well as to provide for enhanced regulations.

He added that the bill wanted to address challenges of malpractice, abuse of office, unprofessionalism and different forms of misconduct in the legal profession.

“Botswana was recently assessed to evaluate its compliance to the anti-money laundering and terrorism financing standards set up by the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti Money Laundering Group (ESAMLG) and the Financial Acting Task Force (FATAF). These standards require legal practitioners to be subjected to a fit and proper test upon application to be admitted as attorneys. The bill, therefore, proposes amendments to the Legal Practitioners Act which when effected will substantially comply with FATAF standards and address issues raised by the assessors,” said the minister.

Mr Shamukuni explained that clauses four, five and six of the bill provided requirements for admission of all legal practitioners irrespective of nationality.

He said clause 14 introduced provision that allowed the registrar to remove from the roll any legal practitioner who failed to meet requirements of fit and proper test.

He added that clause 31 extended liability of the Fidelity Guarantee Fund to compensate clients who experienced loss or hardships due to dishonesty or theft of money by legal practitioners.

He further said clause 34 introduced an additional requirement that an applicant for a Fidelity Fund Certificate should submit audit report to the secretary of the law society confirming that the applicant had complied with requirements relating to the keeping of trust accounts.

The minister added that clause 44 increased the number of members of the disciplinary committee from five to nine, while clause 45 obliged that any legal practitioner should pay all interest of money deposited into the trust account, without any deduction, to the Fidelity Guarantee Fund.

It also provided that a legal practitioner’s accounting records must be inspected where there was reasonable suspicion that the accounts were not in order.

Mr Shamukuni stated that the bill was published in November 2020 but was subsequently deferred after the first reading to allow for further consultations with the Law Society of Botswana. He said most concerns were now addressed.

Supporting the bill, Mahalapye East MP, Mr Yandani Boko expressed happiness at changes proposed for administration of foreign advocates.

“We see a huge improvement from the previous positions which will hopefully result in decrease in the number of foreign advocates in our country,” said the MP.

He, however, expressed concern at the increasing frequency at which law firms were now required to submit trust accounts information to the law society.

Mr Shamukuni, however, said the provision was done to protect clients from being charged undue exorbitant fees by legal practitioners.

Nata/Gweta MP, Mr Polson Majaga also supported the bill, saying it was timely.

He expressed hope that legal practitioners registration changes brought by the bill would lead to an increase in the pool of advocates.

He argued that it would result in ease of access to advocates services. Ends