Botswana-matter: Judgement reserved pending discussions
Acting Deputy Judge President T.J. Raulinga today reserved judgement until 6 June 2022 in the South African government’s application to have the judgement that forces the government to provide mutual legal assistance to the government of Botswana rescinded. Judgement has been reserved to allow the parties to have discussions about the South African government’s failure to provide this assistance to Botswana.
Adv. Gerrie Nel, Head of AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit, today in the Northern Gauteng High Court in Pretoria argued that the rescission application brought by the Department of Justice and Correctional Services, as well as the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), is simply a further attempt by the South African government to fail to respond to the Botswana government’s application for mutual legal assistance in a high-profile case in this country.
Nel and adv. Phyllis Vorster, also from AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit, were officially appointed in June 2020 by the government of Botswana to represent this government in the high-profile money laundering and fraud case in which businesswoman Bridgette Motsepe-Radebe, the sister-in-law of President Cyril Ramaphosa, is implicated.
The South African government’s rescission application seeks to overturn Judge Hennie de Vos’s granting of AfriForum’s mandamus application in the Northern Gauteng High Court. The unopposed mandamus application was granted (with costs) on 7 July 2021 and entails that the Department and the NDPP is obligated to comply with the government of Botswana’s application for mutual legal assistance. The Department and the NDPP in July 2021 failed to oppose AfriForum’s mandamus application.
“We welcome the fact that the court granted the opportunity to the South African government to simply provide the requested information. From today’s proceedings, it has become clear that the South African government failed to take any steps to oppose the mandamus application in 2021. This failure, despite attempts to placate the government of Botswana, points to the South African government never having the intention of providing the mutual legal assistance. Therefore, we were forced to bring the mandamus application in the first place – to force them to provide this assistance for the criminal matter in Botswana to proceed,” says Natasha Venter, Advisor at AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit.
According to Venter the question remains why the South African government brought this rescission application today if they argue that they are willing to provide the mutual legal assistance to the government of Botswana.
“The only inference that can be drawn, is that the South African government does not want to provide this legal assistance, because they want to protect certain high-ranking, political figures from possible prosecution in Botswana.”
The matter was heard virtually.
