The Law Society of Botswana (LSB) Council is set to discuss the future of two attorneys referenced in Balete paramount Chief Kgosi Mosadi Seboko’s expose against President Mokgweetsi Masisi.
LSB is investigating the possibility that the two officers of the court may have sat on information suggesting that President Masisi has already decided the “verdict” of the ongoing legal dispute between Balete and the state.
This follows Kgosi Seboko’s chilling revelation about a secret rendezvous with the President at which meeting Masisi reportedly bragged about his influence in judicial decisions.
Subsequent to the meeting, attended by Kgosi Seboko, President Masisi, and Ramotswa Legislator Lefoko Moagi, the Chief said she was also invited by Moagi to a meeting attended by lawyers Tshiamo Rantao and Basimane Bogopa.
It was also at this meeting that President Masisi’s influence on Court of Appeal (CoA) judges’ decisions was allegedly reiterated.
The meetings, both of which took place in 2021 were never made public until last Wednesday October 5, 2022 when Kgosi Seboko addressed the media and her subjects at Ramotswa’s main Kgotla.
There are no records of any reports filed by both lawyers about the shocking details of the meeting, which details raise questions about the integrity of the Judiciary.
LSB Chairman has confirmed to Sunday Standard that the law society council will meet to discuss the two attorneys’ involvement in the matter. Both Rantao and Bogopa have had press releases released which statements are aimed at exonerating them of any wrongdoing in relation to the said meeting. No one denies being part of the meeting. Bogopa’s statement falls short of accusing Kgosi Seboko of lying to the nation.
“Although Kgosi Seboko is not clear about who is alleged to have said that the President of Botswana His Excellency Dr Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi has spoken to the Court of Appeal Judges about the Malete Case, what I can categorically state is that no such utterances were made by anybody in my presence on the 5th September 2021,” Bogopa writes.
In the letter Bogopa says he found it fit to issue the statement because of utterances that Kgosi Seboko made about his participation at the meeting which he says occurred at her homestead on September 5th, 2021. He confirms there were four people at that meeting, himself, Kgosi Mosadi Seboko, Member of Parliament Moagi, and fellow lawyer Rantao.
“I could not and would not have participated in a meeting where there were allegations and/or plans to subvert the course of justice or to interfere with the Judiciary in the due execution of its duties. If these words were uttered or such plans discussed in my presence, I would have walked out of the meeting and ceased participation,” attorney Bogopa says, adding “the fact of the matter is that Kgosi Mosadi Seboko’s version of events about the said words being uttered at the meeting I attended is not correct. We never discussed any interference with the Judiciary at that time or any other time. I can never be party to any stratagem to interfere with judicial independence of our courts and justices.”
Bogopa’s statement however failed to communicate the reasons behind his involvement in the said meeting. In what capacity did he attend the meeting? As President Masisi’s personal lawyer?
Attorney Rantao’s version came in the form of a press release by Kgosi Seboko which statement was not only aimed at emphasizing his professional integrity but also his loyalty to the Balete tribe.
“I made a statement which, it appears, some interpret to cast aspersions on the integrity of Mr. Rantao insofar as the visit by the Honourable Minister Lefoko Moagi and Mr. Basimane Bogopa to my place in Ramotswa on Sunday, 5th September 2021 is concerned. I therefore want, by this statement, to clarify in order to avoid confusion,” Kgosi Seboko wrote. She said Rantao did not know what the meeting was about.
”Mr Rantao and I rejected the proposal which Minister Moagi came with, and it is he (Mr. Rantao), as our lawyer, and I who counter-proposed that the Government and the Land Board should withdraw the appeal. He went further to counter-propose that the government should simply comply with the judgment of the High Court by removing section 7 (ii) from the Tribal Territories Act. The meeting agreed on this counter-proposal subject to approval by the relevant authorities.”
Balete and the Malete Land Board are currently involved in a legal tussle for Farm Forest Hill 9-KO farm with the land board challenging the High Court ruling that the farm does not lawfully belong to them.
In their appeal the Land Board argues that the High Court erred in finding that Farm Forrest Hill 9-KO belongs to the tribe. The government cites a 2011 CoA judgement in Quarries of Botswana (Pty) Limited v Gamalete Development Trust and Others which they say expressly found that ownership of the farm did not vest in the tribe but with the Malete Land Board.
“The Court of Appeal had, in Quarries of Botswana (Pty) Limited v Gamalete Development Trust and Others, expressly found that the statutory termination of Bamalete freehold title to the land in question and the vesting of the land in Land Board was not unconstitutional,” the Land Board says in their court papers.
Kgosi Seboko and the tribe have also through their lawyers Oteng Motlhala, Tshiamo Rantao, and others filed a cross-appeal calling on the CoA to , among others, find that the High Court erred in finding that there was not a sufficient basis and evidence to consider the Tribe’s challenge to the constitutionality of section 7 of the Tribal Territories Act, or the Tribal Territories Amendment Act of 1973, or section 10(1) of the Tribal Land Act, or the repeal of section 10(2) of the Tribal Land Act by Act 14 of 1993 (the ‘legislative scheme’) for being inconsistent with section 15 of the Constitution of Botswana and invalid, on the grounds that the legislative scheme is discriminatory.
