One of the 2019 general elections petitioners Mogalakwe Mogalakwe has filed an urgent application to halt the sale of his property by the deputy sheriff.
Mogalakwe wants the Writ of Execution granted against him in April this year to be suspended with immediate effect.
He wants deputy sheriff Urgent Chilisa to be stopped from selling his movable property pending the determination of a Review Application he made challenging the amount of legal fees he is required to pay.
The former councillor also wants Chilisa to withdraw an advertisement for the sale of his attached property which sale is scheduled for August 25, 2021.
“I have filed a Review Application before this Court on 8th March 2021. The Review Application is awaiting determination by this honourable Court,” Mogalakwe says in court papers.
“I was shocked to receive a call from the 3rd Respondent (Chilisa) on 2nd July, 2021 informing me that he was coming to attach property at my house and indeed he came and attached same.”
Mogalakwe says despite several attempts to engage Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) lawyers Bogopa, Manewe, Tobedza & Co they still wanted to proceed with the Sale in Execution despite the Review Application and Application for Stay of Execution which, he says, had been served to them on July 22, 2021.
Mogalakwe wants the High Court bill of costs served on him to be reviewed even following taxation. The bill of costs currently under contention stands at P392, 117.68 following taxation. The petitioner wants the amount to be reduced further. Mogalakwe calls the amount “unreasonable” and wants the bill to be taxed further. BDP lawyers Bogopa, Manewe, Tobedza & Co earlier this year slapped the Alliance for Progressives (AP) petitioner with the bill of costs in respect of his elections petition trial challenging results of the 2019 local elections.
The Moralane Ward (Shoshong) council candidate had launched a petition against the BDP and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).
Mogalakwe was one of the handful petitioners that made it to trial during mass protests against the 2019 elections results by mainly the opposition coalition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). Most of the petitions particularly those challenging parliamentary results were dismissed on preliminary points and failed to go to trial.
The P392, 000 legal fee is in relation to the main trial at the High Court which Mogalakwe lost with costs. The fees do not include those from an expedited appeal against the High Court ruling.
It was not clear by the time of going to press if IEC lawyers Minchin & Kelly have already served Mogalakwe with their own bill of costs in relation to the petition.
