After working as a state attorney for 14 years, Assistant Attorney General Dittah Molodi has left public service for private practice.
He was promoted to the level of Assistant Attorney General two years ago.
Asked why he was leaving, he said, ”After working as a state prosecutor for 14 years , I want a change and to practice as a lawyer in a different capacity.”
Molodi’s departure from the AG comes after that of former Deputy Attorney General Abraham Keetshabe earlier this year. He is currently working in the Office of the President as General Counsel.
While working in the AG’s Chambers, Molodi successfully represented the state in several high profile civil cases, such as the one in which the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve activist Roy Sesana and others were claiming damages in relation to goats which the government contended were illegally introduced inside the game reserve.
The goats were finally removed from the reserve and auctioned in 2010 after repeated calls by government to have residents collect them were unsuccessful.
He together with advocate Sydney Pilane, who was then special advisor to former President Festus Mogae, successfully represented government in a case some former residents of the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve challenged the government’s decision to relocate them from the reserve and wanted an order to have services, which had been removed from the reserve, restored.
He also appeared, together with the current Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations, Phandu Skelemani, then Attorney General, and successfully defended the state in a case in which Kgosikwena Sebele wanted the designation and ascendance of Kgari to the throne set aside on basis that he was not the rightful heir to Bakwena chieftaincy.
The resignation of senior personnel in the AG’s Chambers has been cited as one reason for a decision taken by the AG to outsource some of its cases to private attorneys.
Poor working conditions in public service are said to be amongst the reasons leading to counsels leaving the public service. Some state counsels were recently amongst striking workers leading to some cases being postponed in Courts.
