{"id":17975,"date":"2022-04-27T16:11:22","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T16:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi"},"modified":"2022-04-27T16:19:33","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T16:19:33","slug":"advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi","title":{"rendered":"Advocates threaten probe against Swartbooi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>THE Society of Advocates of Namibia is considering lodging a complaint with the Law Society of Namibia to investigate the conduct of Landless People’s Movement leader Bernadus Swartbooi.<\/b><\/p>\n

This is after Swartbooi last week remarked that only lawyers from law firms with political connections to Swapo are appointed as acting judges to the courts.<\/p>\n

Swartbooi made the comments in the National Assembly.<\/p>\n

In a media statement, the Society of Advocates of Namibia said the purpose of Swartbooi’s surmise was to cause doubt on the integrity of the Judicial Service Commission and the independence of the judiciary.<\/p>\n

The society said the remarks by Swartbooi, who is an admitted legal practitioner of the High Court, were reckless and gratuitously made to undermine the public’s confidence in the judiciary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe society of advocates encourages and supports active and robust debate, including in parliament, but cautions that debate should not be used to undermine the rule of law,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

The society said it remains confident in the independence of the judiciary, and Swartbooi should guard against making statements and allegations \u2013 without any facts or basis \u2013 that undermine the public’s confidence in public institutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe trust that the members of the public will not simply accept the statements made by Mr Swartbooi at face value without looking into the facts that are within the public domain.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the debate on the budget allocation to the Ministry of Justice in the National Assembly, Swartbooi claimed the judiciary is not independent.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou find that acting judges are appointed from certain law firms because those law firms are connected to Swapo,\u201d he said, while asking his fellow members of parliament, who seemed to disagree with his allegations, whether they were legal practitioners.<\/p>\n

To give credence to his claims, Swartbooi said a lawyer who acts as an electoral officer at the Swapo Electoral College would be appointed as acting judge, while an individual close to this lawyer would act as a judge of appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the things we as practitioners have picked up and continue to pick up,\u201d Swartbooi said.<\/p>\n

However, lawyer Norman Tjombe, in a media statement on Thursday, said Swartbooi’s statements are \u201cpalpably false\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tjombe urged Swartbooi and other members of parliament to seek facts or do thorough research when debating policy issues in and outside parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cOtherwise, a mockery is made of the institution of parliament and its most important duty of making laws, passing budget, and keeping accountable the government of the day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tjombe said the Namibian judiciary is independent, and compares even more favourably with most older judiciaries elsewhere.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Society of Advocates of Namibia is considering lodging a complaint with the Law Society of Namibia to investigate the conduct of Landless People’s Movement leader Bernadus Swartbooi. This is after Swartbooi last week remarked that only lawyers from law firms with political connections to Swapo are appointed as acting judges to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":17974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12,16],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-17975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nAdvocates threaten probe against Swartbooi - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE Society of Advocates of Namibia is considering lodging a complaint with the Law Society of Namibia to investigate ...\" \/>\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\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advocates threaten probe against Swartbooi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE Society of Advocates of Namibia is considering lodging a complaint with the Law Society of Namibia to investigate ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-27T16:11:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-27T16:19:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_6-62696cfdd958f.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"479\" \/>\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=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Advocates threaten probe against Swartbooi\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-27T16:11:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-27T16:19:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi\"},\"wordCount\":452,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_6-62696cfdd958f.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi\",\"name\":\"Advocates threaten probe against Swartbooi - Namibia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_6-62696cfdd958f.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-27T16:11:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-27T16:19:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"THE Society of Advocates of Namibia is considering lodging a complaint with the Law Society of Namibia to investigate ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_6-62696cfdd958f.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_6-62696cfdd958f.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":479,\"caption\":\"Advocates threaten probe against Swartbooi\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Advocates threaten probe against Swartbooi\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/\",\"name\":\"Namibia\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Advocates threaten probe against Swartbooi - Namibia","description":"THE Society of Advocates of Namibia is considering lodging a complaint with the Law Society of Namibia to investigate ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Advocates threaten probe against Swartbooi","og_description":"THE Society of Advocates of Namibia is considering lodging a complaint with the Law Society of Namibia to investigate ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi","og_site_name":"Namibia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-04-27T16:11:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-27T16:19:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":479,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_6-62696cfdd958f.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Advocates threaten probe against Swartbooi","datePublished":"2022-04-27T16:11:22+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-27T16:19:33+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi"},"wordCount":452,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_6-62696cfdd958f.jpg","keywords":["africa press","Africa Press-Namibia","namibia"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","policy","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi","name":"Advocates threaten probe against Swartbooi - Namibia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_6-62696cfdd958f.jpg","datePublished":"2022-04-27T16:11:22+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-27T16:19:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"THE Society of Advocates of Namibia is considering lodging a complaint with the Law Society of Namibia to investigate ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_6-62696cfdd958f.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_6-62696cfdd958f.jpg","width":720,"height":479,"caption":"Advocates threaten probe against Swartbooi"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/advocates-threaten-probe-against-swartbooi#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Advocates threaten probe against Swartbooi"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/","name":"Namibia","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}