Lawyers slammed in ‘hopeless’ Lesotho/SA border case

A testy political issue, based on historical border claims between Lesotho and South Africa, and involving Britain and the UN as well, is making itself felt in the civil and criminal courts of Lesotho. It involves the leader of the Basotho Convention Movement, a party with one seat in Parliament, who is fighting to have swathes of SA that he says rightfully belong to Lesotho, returned to his country. Ts’epo Lipholo, currently in prison and awaiting trial on a number of charges including treason, has also been fighting this border battle through civil litigation in the courts. As Carmel Rickard explains in her A Matter of Justice report on the Legalbrief site, the most recent decision in Lipholo’s crusade comes from Lesotho’s court of appeal. In the course of its judgment deciding the appeal, Lesotho’s apex court had some tough criticism of counsel involved in Lipholo’s civil matter. The judges repeated the words of the High Court, slating counsel for ‘bringing a hopeless case before court’. Their further criticism included a comment that the papers filed on behalf of the appellants were ‘permeated’ by ‘unclear, confusing and downright sloppy language’.

A Matter of Justice

Judgment