Africa-Press – Lesotho. THE damaging fight in the Law Society of Lesotho went a gear up this week after two local lawyers entered the boxing ring. Advocates Monaheng Rasekoai and Christopher Lephuthing have demanded that Law Society President Advocate Tekane Maqakachane should apologise over some remarks he made concerning the Chief Justice and other judges.
Advocate Maqakachane made the comments during the memorial service of the late Justice Thamsanqa Nomncongo earlier this month. The lawyers said Adv Maqakachane’s letter of apology should be submitted as soon as possible to limit the damage which had been engendered in the minds of the litigating public and the nation at large.
They said Adv Makaqachane had claimed that Chief Justice Sakoane Sakoane had filed an affidavit in a case involving the White Horse Party. Advocates Rasekoai and Lephuthing said nothing of that sort happened.
They said they were representing Professor Nqosa Mahao as the minister in the matter and that the Chief Justice did not file any affidavit in the matter. They said Adv Maqakachane should retract the statement.
They said while they remained loyal members of the Law Society, they felt that the inaccurate statements made by the president against Justice Sakoane and the bench that he leads did not augur well with them.
“It is our considered view that the statement to the effect that puisne judges pander to ‘political line and other interests who have formed their fiefdom and each is responsible to a chief agitator amongst their group’ was with respect uncalled for,” the letter read.
The lawyers said Adv Maqakachane should retract the statement to the extent that it implicates the Chief Justice and the bench he leads over the issue of competence of judges. In his response, Adv Maqakachane said he did not understand why the two lawyers were involving themselves in the matter.
“You do not purport to be acting on behalf of the Chief Justice, the High Court judges and the judicial officers in the subordinate courts and consequently you hold no brief from them. You neither are acting on behalf of the Registrar of the High Court nor the Judicial Service Commission,” he said.
He said the issues they want to engage him in are in a strict sense legal and constitutional matters which are within the purview and mandates of the Attorney General in terms of section 98(2) of the constitution.
He however said he would consider and assume they were writing to him as colleagues who simply want to highlight some error in the correspondence between him and the Registrar of the High Court.
“I will equally address you as close friends and colleagues who are able to appreciate my position, and understand my surprise at the turn of events,” he said.
Adv Maqakachane said he was aware that the two advocates were only bothered with the “error” relating to the filing or non-filing of the affidavit and that error “according to you colleagues, shrouded all issues raised in there and relegated them to the non-issue status which require no attention from you.
He said he had re-read his letter of response to the Registrar of the High Court and has noticed several grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and others.
“That the Chief Justice filed the affidavit could be one of those errors I have made. I am a human. I am prone to errors and will apologise whenever I am on the wrong,” he said.
Adv Maqakachane said he will never retract the statement he made until he understands the relationship between that erroneous statement and how it implicates the Chief Justice as well as the incompetence of the High Court judges.
Meanwhile, members of the Law Society of Lesotho have requested the council to call a special meeting to discuss issues that have arisen in the body in recent weeks.
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