Chief Justice rejects directive

MASERU – CHIEF Justice Sakoane Sakoane has rejected a directive by the Court of Appeal to allow the Registrar of the High Court to allocate cases.

Justice Sakoane told the prosecution counsel, Advocate Motene Rafoneke, this week that the Court of Appeal was wrong to say he should give his power to allocate cases to the Registrar.

He said the law states clearly that it is the duty of the Chief Justice to allocate cases and not the Registrar, therefore the Court of Appeal has erred.

“What I cannot do is to contravene the law of parliament myself,” Justice Sakoane said, after stating that he was leaving the matter to the Court of Appeal and the Registrar to solve.

This is a case in which the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Advocate Hlalefang Motinyane, sought Justice Sakoane’s recusal from a treason case involving two prominent politicians.

The two politicians are the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) leader, Mothetjoa Metsing, and Selibe Mochoboroane, the Movement for Economic Change (MEC) leader who is also the Development Planning Minister.

Former army boss, Lieutenant General Tlali Kamoli, is also one of the accused in the case, together with other soldiers who are still under the Lesotho Defence Force’s employ.

The DPP had prayed that this case be allocated to and presided over by a foreign judge, after her application for Justice Sakoane’s recusal when she felt that the judge would be biased.

Justice Moses Chinhengo of the Court of Appeal, sitting with Justices NT Ntshiya and JW Van Der Westhuizen, declined to grant her the prayer.

“It suffices that this court directs that the matter be placed before another judge,” Justice Chinhengo said.

“The decision whether that judge is foreign or local is left to the relevant authorities to make, as convenience and the interests of justice dictate,” he said.

“The trial of the respondents,” he said, “shall be allocated by the Registrar to another judge who may be a judge recruited for the purpose from outside the jurisdiction or any other judge of the High Court of the Kingdom of Lesotho.”

It is this part of the Registrar given the power to allocate this case that has irked the top judge. Justice Sakoane argued that even though the Court of Appeal has ruled that he should recuse himself from the treason case, a panel of three judges presiding over the case has flouted the procedure.

He said it is wrong for the panel to order the Registrar to appoint a new judge to preside over the case. Central to his argument is that it is not the duty of the Registrar to allocate cases to judges.
Justice Sakoane stood firm that he is bestowed with powers to allocate cases to judges.

“I am just going to excuse myself,” he said, adding that “this is a matter between the Registrar and the Court of Appeal”.

He said the functions of the Registrar are mainly administrative. He said according to section 112 of the Constitution, it is only the Chief Justice who has powers to allocate cases. Justice Sakoane said if the Registrar goes on to commit a crime by exercising powers which do not belong to her, it’s on her own.

He argued that the apex court knew the law and procedures to be followed but decided to rule otherwise.

’Malimpho Majoro