{"id":16643,"date":"2022-06-27T10:05:06","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T10:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/double-blow-for-former-lca-ceo"},"modified":"2022-06-27T10:34:29","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T10:34:29","slug":"double-blow-for-former-lca-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/double-blow-for-former-lca-ceo","title":{"rendered":"Double blow for former LCA CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>The High Court has dismissed a recusal application of former Lesotho Communications Authority (LCA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) \u2018Mamarame Matela. LCA had petitioned the court seeking to order its former CEO to return the company\u2019s property that is still in her possession. Those items were 12 inch iPad, a recording device, a Range Rover vehicle, an LCA uniform, office keys, the company\u2019s credit card, a laptop, and the Authority\u2019s board minutes.<br \/>\nEarlier LCA had sought a court order to raid and recover the Authority\u2019s items that it said were still in her possession despite the expiration of her contract end of March. Last month when the case was about to be heard, Matela launched a recusal petition against Judge T\u0161eliso Mokoko to recuse himself from hearing her case between her and LCA, arguing that he would not bring an impartial mind owing to family and professional relationship.<\/p>\n<p>Matela then said she had been in Judge\u2019s residence at Ha-Matala and had attended her daughter\u2019s birthday celebrations, the allegation that the Judge disputed, saying her daughters\u2019 birthday parties were always held at Spur restaurant. She also said she had fined Vodacom Lesotho at the time when Justice Mokoko\u2019s wife was working at that company fearing that penalty she imposed on that company resulted in the negligence of the Judge\u2019s spouse, adding that when she came home \u201cstressed\u201d she would confide with her husband. Matela said her suspicion was that the presiding officer, would be biased against her. The petitioner further argued that the Judge had a peculiar interest in his spouse\u2019s career growth within Vodacom.<\/p>\n<p>She also said, when the Judge\u2019s wife joined the Lesotho Revenue Services (LRA) their friendship took a downward turn wherein the former\u2019s wife ceased all communication with the complainant. Delivering the ruling, Judge Mokoko dismissed Matela\u2019s application, saying it is \u201cwithout merit\u201d.<br \/>\nThis court holds that the applicant\u2019s apprehension of bias on the part of this court has no merit. None of the remarks and conduct complained about giving rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias or its perception\u201d he said. The court dismissed Matela\u2019s application with costs. Meanwhile, LCA legal representative Attorney Qhalehang Letsika had prayed that the Matela should be ordered to pay costs on the \u201chigher scale of Attorney and client\u201d, a submission which the court declined saying \u201ccosts should not be a deterrent factor to access to justice where future litigants with genuine matters which deserve judicial alternations\u201d.<br \/>\nThe court further held: \u201cIn awarding costs at a higher scale the courts should therefore exercise greater vigilance. \u201d Justice Mokoko further noted that awarding costs at a higher scale of client-attorney could be done in \u201cexceptional\u201d circumstances. Contacted for comment on whether she will appeal the judgment, she said she is going to engage her lawyers for a piece of advice. Since her suspension in June 2021 for<\/p>\n<p>allegedly awarding a multi-million tender without due process, Matela had been in a protracted legal battle with the LCA. The then Minister of Communications Science and Technology Hon. Keketso Sello had suspended her for allegedly awarding a tender of over M500 million to a South African company, Global Voices Group (GVG) for the supply of a Compliance Monitoring and Revenue Assurance system. She then petitioned the court to reverse this suspension and lost that case resulting in her appearing before a closed tribunal that was set to investigate her fitness to remain as LCA boss. Matela was representing herself, and LCA was represented by Attorney Qhalehang Letsika. The case for LCA and Matela has been stood down to July 12.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\">Lesotho<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. The High Court has dismissed a recusal application of former Lesotho Communications Authority (LCA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) \u2018Mamarame Matela. LCA had petitioned the court seeking to order its former CEO to return the company\u2019s property that is still in her possession. Those items were 12 inch iPad, a recording device, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":16642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,7,8,16],"tags":[233,246,245,1880],"class_list":["post-16643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-matela"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Double blow for former LCA CEO - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The High Court has dismissed a recusal application of former Lesotho Communications Authority (LCA) Chief Executive Offi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/double-blow-for-former-lca-ceo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Double blow for former LCA CEO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The High Court has dismissed a recusal application of former Lesotho Communications Authority (LCA) Chief Executive Offi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/double-blow-for-former-lca-ceo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-27T10:05:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-27T10:34:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_27-62b9879c03f27.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/double-blow-for-former-lca-ceo#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/double-blow-for-former-lca-ceo\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Double blow for former LCA CEO\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-27T10:05:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-27T10:34:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/double-blow-for-former-lca-ceo\"},\"wordCount\":623,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/double-blow-for-former-lca-ceo#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_27-62b9879c03f27.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"Matela\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/double-blow-for-former-lca-ceo#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/double-blow-for-former-lca-ceo\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/double-blow-for-former-lca-ceo\",\"name\":\"Double blow for former LCA CEO - 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