Advocate Sidney Pilane fires salvo at CoA judges

Advocate Sidney Pilane yesterday fired a salvo at Court of Appeal judges for what he terms lack of respect for lawyers.

Advocate Pilane told a bench of five CoA judges that his junior lawyer, Mboki Chilisa was last week attacked, interrupted and terrorised by the judges who were presiding over a case in which a teacher was fired for criticising President Ian Khama and his administration.

Chilisa is representing Goitsemodimo Dintwe, a former teacher at Radisele Junior Secondary School in a case in which Dintwe is challenging his dismissal from the public service following the publication of his opinion piece by a local newspaper on Khama’s administration in May 2011. The opinion piece was published in 2011 following the historic public sector strike.

Dintwe was called for a disciplinary hearing in November and fired later that year from his employment. He has since challenged his dismissal and the way the disciplinary hearing was conducted. Advocate Pilane complained that Chilisa was harassed and abused by the judges when he appeared before court last week.
“We are happy to be asked questions so that we provide clarity to the court but we want to be respected as we respect the court.

He was constantly interrupted and he hardly finished his sentences,” said the advocate. The court however argued that Chilisa was supposed to man-up and tell the judges his feelings.

Advocate Pilane said there was no way Chilisa could have done that because he was terrified. “The problem with this court is that it does not want to listen to us. Listen to us regarding why we are here,” said Advocate Pilane who indicated that failure by the court to listen to what he wanted to say would clearly mean that his client would have been denied a fair hearing.

The contention has been that Chilisa was given a chance last week to make his case but Chilisa who was also in court stuck with his story. He told Advocate Pilane that he was not given a chance. He maintained that he was constantly disrupted by the panel. Advocate Pilane said it would be unfortunate for the court not to listen to him while he is representing a client who has spent a lot of money to engage him in the case.

After a short adjournment, the court decided to allow Advocate Pilane to argue his case from the beginning even though Chilisa had debated some of the issues of the case last week. The court has reserved judgement for a later date yet to be communicated.