As Scrutator has always argued, Lesotho has too many lawyers—far too many—squeezed into a tiny market where the available clients can barely fill a kombi, let alone sustain an entire profession. The legal profession is now akin to a desperate jungle as the Kingdom continues to drown in lawyers— a bloated herd of wig-wearing hustlers elbowing each other for the same handful of clients.
Even former judge, Tšeliso Monapathi, once mocked this chaos when he lamented that some of these “learned friends” were literally operating from the boots of their battered second-hand cars. He was right, of course—though the force of his observation is blunted by his own spectacular failure to issue judgments. Still, the truth of his observation remains: there are simply too many lawyers chasing too few briefs. We have far too many lawyers and far too little law.
Moratorium
If this country had any sense left, it would impose a moratorium—yes, a complete freeze—on training any more lawyers for at least a decade. We already have a surplus of hungry legal vultures. What we don’t have are IT experts, engineers, coders, innovators and industrial minds who can rescue us from our current status as a kingdom of squalor pretending to be a modern state. If Lesotho truly wishes to transform into anything resembling an industrial giant, it will not be built on the backs of lawyers. It will be built by scientists and technicians—not ambulance-chasing advocates who can’t resist dipping their fingers into clients’ compensation payouts.
Monstorus crook
Which brings us to the wretched crook of the week: “Advocate” Dyke Thejane. A disgrace. A shame. A man who has done more damage to the profession than a hundred boot-of-the-car lawyers ever could.
How does a grown man—sworn to protect the vulnerable—steal from a poor woman injured in an accident? How does he look at a client jolted by tragedy, someone clinging to hope after a devastating crash, and decide that her M262 000 is better off in his pocket? How bankrupt must your soul be to prey on someone already wounded by fate? Thejane is not merely unethical. He is a wretched, thieving opportunist with no shame, no conscience, and no business ever again coming within fifty kilometres of a legal file.
Thejane is not merely rotten, but fermented, decomposed, rancid to the core. He is a “lawyer” who didn’t just cross an ethical line; he pole-vaulted over it, sprinted into criminality, and set up camp there. He is a monstrous criminal.
What kind of creature — not man, not professional, but creature — steals from a poor, injured woman?
A client who had already suffered a terrible accident?
A victim who trusted him with everything she had left?
Only a conscienceless scavenger capable of feeding on a human carcass is capable of that. And Thejane is that archetypal scavenger.
Insatiable greed
And here is what makes Thejane’s thuggery even more stomach-turning: M’e ’Matsepang Setala had already been generous — scandalously generous, in fact — by agreeing to give him 25 percent (M88 000) of her settlement as legal fees. A whole quarter of her hard-won compensation, handed to him without complaint. Any normal lawyer would have said “thank you” and done their job. But not Thejane. Oh no. Greed was fermenting in his veins. Not satisfied with a fee most advocates would kill for, this man decided he wanted everything. He looked at a poor accident victim’s suffering, at her pain, at her medical bills, at her hope — and concluded that the entire M350 000 belonged to him. That is not mere misconduct. That is moral gangrene. It is the mentality of a hyena who, after being given a full leg, still charges back to tear off the remaining carcass. A man capable of such gluttonous cruelty has no business calling himself “Advocate” anything.
Law Society
Thank goodness the Law Society of Lesotho was alert, awake, and uncharacteristically swift. They froze his accounts, suspended him, dragged him to court, and made it clear that the legal profession is not a playground for petty crooks masquerading as practitioners. For once, the guardians of legal ethics guarded.
And then came Acting High Court Judge Sekake Malebanye—armed with moral clarity and a spine, two things often scarce in our judicial corridors. In a ruling that deserves to be carved in granite, he declared Thejane’s behaviour “disgraceful” and said it “spat on the foundation of legal practice”. He didn’t mince words. He didn’t opt for the usual judicial slap-on-the-wrist. He struck the man off the roll entirely—where he belongs.
Let’s be clear: suspension would have been a reward. Disbarment is justice.
The message must ring across the land: if you mishandle client money, if you dip into trust accounts, if you lie, cheat, or steal—even once—you are finished. The legal profession is not a charity. It is not a sanctuary for scoundrels. And it certainly cannot survive if lawyers become indistinguishable from the criminals they claim to defend society against.
Well done
Scrutator applauds the Law Society for cleaning house, and Justice Malebanye for picking up the broom.
Well done Lintle Tuke, Mme Ithabeleng Phamotse, and the rest of your colleagues at the Law Society for bringing this case against Thejane.
Thejane must now face the next unavoidable step: prosecution. A prison cell awaits him, as it should. And full restitution to poor M’e ’Matsepang Setala must be non-negotiable.
Let Thejane explain himself to a judge while wearing handcuffs, not a robe. Let him repay every lisente he stole from M’e Setala. Let him learn that the law he mocked can bite back — and sometimes bite very hard.
This entire saga should terrify every lawyer in this country who still thinks trust money is a personal savings account. Lesotho may have too many lawyers, yes — but that means the broom must sweep harder, not softer.
The Law Society has cleaned house.
Justice Malebanye has disinfected the floor.
Now let the police finish the job.
And let every lawyer take note: the era of impunity is over. Or at least, it should be—if the Law Society keeps its broom raised.
That broom must sweep off all parasites like Thejane pretending to be professionals.
The Others
Thank heavens, there are still other good young lawyers with a knack for professionalism. One such young lawyer I follow closely is Monaheng Rasekoai, who is also one of Ntate Lintle Tuke’s predecessors as president of the Law Society. Unlike Thejane, Rasekoai is not a thief. He has never stolen a cent from a client. He is the epitome of honesty. In fact, he has often represented some poor people free of charge. And above all, Rasekoai is immensely handsome. The story goes of one female judge (name withheld) who drools and salivates whenever Rasekoai is appearing before her. Scrutator has nonetheless become extremely worried with Rasekoai over the rate at which he is losing court cases and issuing flawed legal advice with reckless abandon.
Remember, my gripe with him some weeks back after he misled the LEC and Ntate Thabo Khasipe into disingenuously challenging the authority of the Public Accounts Committee in court, earning a judicial shellacking from the indefatigable head of the judiciary, Ntate Sakoane Sakoane.
Now Rasekoai is at it again. After losing in the Constitutional Court to have his clients Tumisang Mosotho and Tsikoane Peshoane appointed as Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) commissioners, Rasekoai has trashed that judgment and taken it on appeal. That is of course his prerogative and that of his clients.
But the lesson to be learned by all good lawyers from this latest Rasekoai Constitutional Court loss is that not every dispute must end up in court. Yes, the more time a lawyer spends in court, the more the fees. The good thing though is for every lawyer to avoid putting their clients on wild goose chases. After all our learned judges always have pressing issues at their disposal. Moreso that we are top five among the world’s most homicidal nations.
I have taken the trouble to read Rasekoai’s appeal papers against the well-reasoned judgment of Ntate Sakoane Sakoane and Justices Realeboha Mathaba and Itumeleng Shale against bontate Mosotho and Peshoane’s bids to become IEC commissioners. Nowhere in the papers does Rasekoai explain why he believes his two clients are entitled or have a God decreed right to become IEC commissioners. Most alarmingly, Rasekoai omits to quote the specific bible verse which decrees that Mosotho and Peshoane were born to become IEC commissioners.
Scrutator has no iota of doubt that Rasekoai will earn another loss at the Court of Appeal on behalf of his latest clients. Hopefully, that will be yet another lesson to all good lawyers that they should not foist unnecessary litigation down the throats of their clients.
Nowhere is it suggested in the Quran or the Bible that the world will stop turning if Mosotho and Peshoane don’t join the IEC. After all, don’t they have other things to do with their lives?
Ache!!!
