A litigant who rushed to court recently in a bid to interdict Gaborone High Court Judge Itumeleng Segopolo’s former client from ‘harassing’ him has agreed to remove the Judge from the proceedings.
In his application, Reginald Ratshosa had cited Justice Segopolo as the Second Respondent while the Judge’s former client (Modise Mhlabano) was cited as the First Respondent.
The court however was unable to find any cause of action against Justice Segopolo. As a result, the application against Justice Segopolo was withdrawn with leave of the Court. Ratshosa and Mhlabano, entered into a consent order. According to the consent order, Ratshosa withdraw application against Justice Segopolo.
The draft consent order by the parties which was made an order of the Court by Justice Ookeditse Maphakwane also interdicted and restrained Modise and any deputy sheriff to enforce a writ of execution dated 6th May 2015.
Last Sunday the Sunday Standard carried a front-page story based on the founding court documents of the litigant Reginald Ratshosa, claiming that Justice Segopolo had misconducted himself in connection with P 400,000-00 of trust funds. The writer had not had the benefit of seeing the papers filed by the Judge in reply, nor any comment from the Judge. The writer was of the impression that these papers were yet to come, and would be part of a continuing story.
This publication has also ascertained from the Secretary of the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) that there are no disciplinary proceedings pending against the Judge before that body.
In light of these subsequent findings, and the writer having since read the Judge’s papers in reply, any imputation of wrongdoing by the Judge is hereby retracted. The writer and this paper tender a sincere apology to the Judge, his family and his associates, for any harm caused by the article.
