TWO magistrates and an academic had a tough time this week during interviews for the position of judge of the High Court. The interviews were conducted by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). The magistrates are Palesa Rantara, sitting in the Thaba-Tseka Magistrates’ Court, and Motlatsi Kolisang from the Small Claims Court.
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Dr Itumeleng Shale, a senior lecturer at the National University of Lesotho (NUL) and a practising private lawyer, was also part of the panel.
Magistrate Rantara said she has been a resident magistrate for 11 years from 2013 to 2024. In 2022, she was an acting judge of the High Court and completed eight cases in three months.
Chief Justice Sakoane Sakoane, who was part of a panel of four judges, asked her to explain an incident where a case could not be finished due to a lack of allowances for witnesses.
She said “the witnesses did not come to court due to those reasons”.
“The issue was that I also had to go back to Thaba-Tseka to complete that case because one of the accused’s counsels raised a constitutional issue,” Magistrate Rantara said.
Magistrate Rantara added that the case could not be completed mostly because witnesses could not be given their allowances as some of them stayed in Maseru.
“Others are in Thaba-Tseka,” she said.
Justice Sakoane said the witnesses are subpoenaed.
“A witness cannot say they will not appear in court because they are hungry,” Justice Sakoane said.
He added that the law is clear on the condition in which a case can be postponed, “being sick, by the counsel or any stakeholder”.
He also said in the case where a witness refuses to appear before a court, they can be arrested so that they are closer to the courts of law.
He said the court has powers, adding that when called, one has to leave whatever they are doing and attend the hearing.
Magistrate Rantara responded that “the prosecution is to blame for failing to provide witnesses’ allowance”.
Justice Sakoane told Magistrate Rantara that the lawyer of the accused in the case had told him that the accused had fled to Cape Town.
“Was a warrant of arrest issued?” he asked.
Magistrate Rantara told the panel that the warrant of arrest was dispatched for the accused, adding that the case was set for 2023.
Justice Sakoane asked what had happened to the case since we are now in 2024.
Magistrate Rantara said the hearing never happened as the accused is still at large.
In another issue, Justice Sakoane asked about a similar case of one Mojalefa Rakose whose case the prosecution closed “as the accused has fled”.
“The matter was supposed to be heard in June this year. What happened?”
Magistrate Rantara said the case had two accused people, “one has fled, and the other one has been charged”.
She said the case is now complete with one accused now convicted.
In another issue, Justice Sakoane said in one incident an Ethiopian man raped a woman and later gave her M40 000.
“The woman was happy and I saw a problem there. Even if he has given the victim some money, the man has to be prosecuted,” Justice Sakoane said, adding: “There is no room for settlement in criminal matters.”
Magistrate Rantara said in another incident the same man had fought with people at a bar and later came back to make a settlement.
“That person tends to be troublesome,” she said.
Dr Shale, who also threw her hat into the ring, told the panel that she is lecturing and at the same time privately practising because “I do not want to lose touch”.
Currently, Dr Shale is serving as the head and member of the Department of Procedural and Adjectival Law at the NUL.
She is an attorney.
She said she is a human rights advocate with major focus on domestic implementation of international human rights against torture.
On completion of her PhD, she was promoted to the position of senior lecturer at the NUL.
“I am a human rights advocacy trainer with humanitarian experience of 20 years,” she said.
Justice Sakoane said Dr Shale has provided them with relevant articles in Lesotho Law Journals.
She was critiqued about the articles that she wrote.
The JSC demanded to know how she could handle certain scenarios in her capacity as a judge if she could qualify for the job.
The CJ dwelled more on how bail applications could be administered.
“The discretion is on the courts to grant the bail or not,” she said.
Justice Sakoane said if they are unable to make decisions in the courts, their independence and neutrality could be questioned.
Resident Magistrate Kolisang holds a Masters in Law or LLM.
The JSC questioned the manner in which he filled the questionnaires.
“What you did is contrary to what the questionnaires want,” Justice Sakoane quipped.
Magistrate Kolisang was told that the position that he had applied for needs a high level of concentration.
He said the magistrate had wrongfully and badly filled the forms.
The JSC members took hours questioning the manner in which he had filled the questionnaires.
