04 Dec 2023

President of the Court of Appeal (CoA), Justice Tebogo Tau will, on Wednesday,  deliver judgement of the case in which the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has filed to expedite the appeal on Francistown High Court’s order.

The appeal is in relation to Justice Gaolapelwe Ketlogetswe’s November 10 order, which allowed the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) to observe and monitor the voter registration exercise.
In presenting the heads of arguments yesterday, the respondents’ attorney, Advocate Duma Boko argued that Justice Ketlogetswe’s order was not appealable.

Advocate Boko said the applicants acknowledged in their founding affidavit that the order they were seeking to appeal was an interim order.

In the event that the order was deemed to be appealable, he said the CoA needed to be mindful that the applicant had not sought leave of the Francistown court to appeal its interim order in terms of Section 11 of the Court of Appeal Act.

In his submission, the appellant attorney, Advocate Andrew Redding said Judge Ketlogetswe’s order was worth appealing as it was the case of misinterpretation of both the country’s Constitution and the Electoral Act.

Advocate Redding said the order was equivalent to amending the Electoral Act, something which would be unconstitutional since Parliament was the only institution entrusted with amending or formulating legislation.

Additionally, he said the order was appealable since it was not inclusive of other stakeholders in the electoral process, arguing that taking voters' personal details by UDC observers could have far reaching consequences. ENDS