22 Nov 2022

Contending factions in the ownership of Farm Forest Hill 9-KO, Balete tribe and Malete Land Board have pleaded with the Court of Appeal (CoA) to allow them to procedurally file their papers.

The two, made their plea before a full bench of the CoA consisting of Chief Justice Terrence Rannowane, Judge President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Tebogo Tau and Justices Isaac Lesetedi, Singh Walia and Mercy Garekwe recently.

The tribe and Malete Land Board conceded before the panel that they filed their appeal papers before the CoA without serving the High Court as required by the rules of the CoA.

The erroneous filing was in relation to a matter in which the attorney general, Registrar of Deeds and Malete Land Board are appealing a High Court decision that awarded Farm Forest Hill ownership to the tribe.

Appearing before the panel, tribe’s attorney, Advocate Geoffrey Budlender conceded to the error in filing adding that they profusely apologise to the error and it was an oversight.

“Due to a genuine oversight on their part, our attorney of record filed the documents being the notice of opposition and the cross-appeal directly at the court of appeal,” he conceded.

Advocate Budlender said Balete tribe attorneys became aware of the error when raised by the court of appeal in the October session.

He said despite the wrong filing, they had high prospects of success in the appeal case, as the case concerned ownership of a farm that the tribe purchased using its own money to address shortage of land.

 Further, he said the matter was of national importance and raised important constitutional issues that do not impact only Balete, hence it was in the best interest of justice for all arguments to be heard.

 Further, he said that their case would also address questions of equality of land ownership in the country, adding that property owned by white people were privileged over that of black people and such ought to be looked upon.

While attorney for Malete Land Board Paul Mozimo said failure to file with the high court was an omission on their part adding that had the registrar alerted them , the matter could had been sorted.

And further added that the applicant, being Malete Land Board had done all that was needed to be done on time, hence he pleaded with the court to allow for the filing.  “The attorney may be punished but the client must not be punished,” he pleaded.

The judgment on the plea to file would be delivered on December 2 this year, while the main case of ownership of Farm Forest Hill 9-KO would be determined next year.  BOPA