Our indefatigable and hard-working Chief Justice, Ntate Sakoane Sakoane, is doing a great job in trying to put sanity in Lesotho’s long comatose judiciary. He certainly does not always get everything right (he is human after all) but he has been trying hard. He is doing a lot to transform the judiciary for the better.
His new Rules of Court (drawn from the Namibian experience) that seek to curtail litigants from unnecessarily dragging cases by not filing coherent paperwork (and requesting further particulars) are spot on.
One would assume all lawyers would realize they are duty bound to respect the Chief Justice’s enormous schedule and the time required of it. Apart from running the whole judiciary as its chief administrator, Ntate Sakoane must also sit to hear cases and deliver judgments. And he has indeed delivered many groundbreaking judgments.
While the Court of Appeal is technically the top uppermost court, Ntate Kananelo Mosito and his colleagues in that court are in reality moonlighters. They have other jobs elsewhere. Ntate Mosito is a lecturer at NUL. They appear to hear appeals and then disappear until they appear again at their next scheduled session. So the task of running the judiciary is Ntate Sakoane’s as the full time head of the judiciary.
One would expect that lawyers realize this simple fact and respect his time. Yet, many of them are not embarrassed to waste his time by bringing forth their moronic cases which should never be brought before any court.
Scrutator does not know what can be done to stop these lawyers from wantonly bringing their stupidity before the courts and avoid wasting the Chief Justice’s time. After all, he holds the most important constitutional office in the Kingdom. He does not need any shit shows. That everyone has a right to appear before court – if they so wish – is now a cliché over exploited to clog the courts.
Lesotho has a long list of gmail and yahoo lawyers, with the boots of their second, if not third, hand car imports as their main offices. Let’s never forget the instructive words of condemnation of these types of “lawyers” by now retired Justice Tseliso Monapathi.
Lintle Tuke is also trying to do good to improve the regulatory environment for lawyers, though he still has a long way to go. He is at least trying. Previous leaders of the Law Society of Lesotho (LSL) were sad jokes. They made the LSL a laughable hoax. Let’s hope Tuke keeps trying. In the end, he must foster better regulation of the legal profession, with appropriate penalties against lawyers who regularly bring the legal profession into disrepute, by bringing moronic cases before our esteemed justices.
This is not to suggest that the lawyer I am taking umbrage with in this column is stupid. No, he is not. But he at least needs to begin taking himself seriously. Or rather reining himself in, failing which he will soon elevate himself to the top of the list of Lesotho’s most moronic gmail, yahoo lawyers.
I am talking here of one Advocate Fusi Sehapi. I cannot understand why on this earth Ntate Sehapi saw it necessary to waste Ntate Sakoane’s time by asking him for an order to protect one Reverend Tšepo Lipholo from being “arrested” by both Lesotho and South Africa over his lunatic crusade to “reclaim” Lesotho’s land “stolen” by South Africa during the colonial era.
In case you missed my column last week, if Reverend Lipholo (gets his way, all South Africans in Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal, Eastern Cape and the Free State provinces would have long been foisted under the rule of Ntate Motsoahae and his beloved Lady Liabiloe.
They will now be under the RFP cabal. In a nutshell, ntate Lipholo wants all these four provinces to be declared Lesotho territory and all their citizens to immediately become Basotho and accept Lesotho’s rule because they are living on Lesotho’s “stolen” land. If they don’t want to be incorporated into the expanded Lesotho that Ntate Lipholo dreams of in his empty skull, then they must migrate further into Limpopo and the North West to remain SA citizens. If they accept Lesotho’s rule, that means the Kingdom’s population spirals from two million to at least 30 million. Ntate Lipholo does not say where the new seat of government will be relocated to if his dream becomes reality. Maybe to Nkandla or even Masilonyane? We will have to wait to hear from him.
What Scrutator finds immensely debilitating, if not saddening, is that there are lawyers out there who think that Ntate Lipholo and his wife ‘Mathapelo Lipholo’s anthropological nonsense is worth the time of our courts?
Is it because real work is so scarce that these yahoo lawyers will take anything to courts to justify some fees? Or is it because some of these lawyers will do anything for cheap publicity, no matter how that damages their reputations?
For the record, I have never communicated with Ntate Sehapi directly. So, I am not sure whether he runs a proper legal office with a corporate email system like Webber Newdigate or he transacts his business from his gmail, hotmail or yahoo account. This latter scenario seems more probable though.
How did “Advocate” Sehapi think he could legitimately go before Justice Sakoane and get an order for ‘Mathapelo Lipholo to “bar both the governments of Lesotho and South Africa from arresting Dr Lipholo (her husband) or subjecting him to torture or any other violations of his rights” over his demented crusade to reclaim “stolen” land. What’s wrong with Ntate Sehapi?
Didn’t Ntate Sehapi see President Ramaphosa in the Oval Office in Washington yesterday – strutting his stuff on the world stage – engaging with the most powerful man in the world? What makes Ntate Sehapi believe Ntate Ramaphosa has time to bother with his client and their moronic behaviour? Can’t they find better, less embarrassing ways of seeking publicity?
How dare “Advocate” Sehapi waste Ntate Sakoane’s time by asking the Chief Justice for an order “to compel the United Nations Security Council to provide Dr Lipholo with personal security” while the UN considers his mad petition for the return of “stolen” land. Who told Ntate Sehapi that the Security Council will ever have time to waste on such a useless petition?
And to add salt to injury, when Ntate Sakoane rightly asked Ntate Sehapi and his clients to go jump in the deepest parts of far flung Lake Chivero (not even in the nearby Mohale or Katse Dams) in equally far flung Zimbabwe, Ntate Sehapi cries foul and actually decides to appeal to the Court of Appeal?
Is Ntate Sehapi serious? Doesn’t he see that he is destroying his reputation on a fool’s errand and no one will ever take him seriously as a lawyer? Isn’t this the same Sehapi who went to court asking to be declared a King’s Counsel when he had barely practiced and had just left NUL? Isn’t this the same Sehapi who defiantly used Sesotho in court when English is the language of communication in the courts?
Is it because we now have too many lawyers as Scrutator has complained about previously? How about NUL shutting down its law faculty indefinitely? Is Thulo Hoane still an “Advocate”? Is he still actually appearing before judges?
How does any self-respecting lawyer bring this Lipholo nonsense to court and waste the Chief Justice’s time when there are serious cases that need adjudication?
And what do other lawyers think about Ntate Sehapi’s behavior? Don’t they worry he is besmirching their profession and soon, if he persists with this foolishness, all lawyers would be regarded as the equivalent of snake oil salesmen? Aren’t many of them already regarded as such?
Is there anything that can be done to rein in Sehapi? Can Tuke consider deregistering him as a lawyer please on the basis that he is an embarrassment to the legal profession?
In this case, I don’t blame the Lipholos. Their attention seeking but anthropologically foolish antics should never have found their way to court because they should not have found any lawyer willing to assist them.
Sadly, and tragically, there is Sehapi. What a disgrace. Maybe a ban from the courts of all yahoo lawyers and their moronic clients is now way overdue.
Ache!!!
