\tSpeculation about his possiblereinstatement as the head of Lesotho\u2019s Appeal Court was fuelled by Lesothoforeign minister Tlohang Sekhamane\u2019s extraordinary statement last week that \u201cdespiteall the sensational headlines about Judge Ramodibedi having been fired inSwaziland\u201d, there had been \u201ca soft landing for that powerful Mosotho judge who,despite this saga, has made us proud by flying the Lesotho flag high with hislegal practice experience abroad\u201d.<\/p>\n
\tSekhamane is said to have intervened to have charges droppedagainst him in Swaziland.<\/p>\n
\tAs the Swazi chief justice from 2011 Ramodibediwas at the centre of repeated controversies, including a protest strike bySwazi lawyers and the jailing of the country\u2019s most respected editor<\/p>\n
\tIn his own country, he resigned his judicial position in anapparent move to stave off an impeachment process driven by former premier TomThabane over his alleged maladministration and abuse of office.<\/p>\n
\tLesotho\u2019s new seven-party coalition government, headed byMosisili, has good reasons for wanting a sympathetic leader of the judiciary.It may be facing a slew of court cases, particularly relating to the killing offormer defence force head Maaparankoe Mahao.<\/p>\n
\tLegal experts in Lesotho, who spoke anonymously, alleged thatsome of Lesotho\u2019s coalition government partners had been trying to find ways ofcreating a vacancy in the Court of Appeal for Ramodibedi to fill.<\/p>\n
\tHowever, it had been pointed out to them that the court\u2019s currentpresident, Kananelo Mosito, was innocent of any misconduct warranting removaland that his position is protected by the constitution.<\/p>\n
\tThe president of the Lesotho Law Society, Shale Shale, toldamaBhungane that the society would have reservations about any move toreinstate Ramodibedi.<\/p>\n
\tShale was, however, quick to say there had been no formalcommunication from government indicating such intentions.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe have only heard rumours about his possible return, butit is not clear exactly what position he would assume, Appeal Court president orChief Justice.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe will have to wait to see what transpires, as there are substantivepeople in those positions. The Law Society would need convincing reasons for [Ramodibedi\u2019s]reappointment, as he has issues that have tainted his image, including maladministrationof funds and an alleged insurance fraud case.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe are aware of other charges he was facing in Swaziland.We would not want someone with such a record at the helm of the judiciary andwould protest against his appointment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tCurrent appeal court head Kananelo Mosito said: \u201cNothing hascome my way to give me any impression about [Ramodibdi\u2019s] reinstatement; Idon\u2019t know anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tSekhamane told a Lesotho\u2019s Sunday Express that the decision to allow Ramodibedi safe passage outof Swaziland without being charged followed \u201ccordial\u201d talks and correspondencebetween Mswati and Lesotho\u2019s King Letsie.<\/p>\n
\tHe suggested that Mosisili\u2019s governmenthad prompted the contact between the two monarchs, saying it was \u201cpursuant tothe government of Lesotho\u201d.<\/p>\n
\t\u00a0\u201cBecauseof the cordial relations between the two Kings and, of course, governments, \u00a0King Mswati III accordingly relieved JudgeRamodibedi of his position as the Swazi Chief Justice and the charges which hefaced were also dropped.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tContacted for comment, Lesotho\u2019s minister in the Prime Minister\u2019s office, Kimetso Mathaba, defended his government\u2019sdecision to broker Ramodibedi\u2019s safe passage home saying all it had done waswas to \u201censure his safe return\u201d.<\/p>\n
\tHe said he knew of claims that he is to bereappointed to the Lesotho judiciary, but that that the coalition governmenthad not even discussed the issue.<\/p>\n
\tNumerous attempts to get hold ofRamodibedi were fruitless, as his mobile phone went unanswered.<\/p>\n
\t* Got a tip-off for us about this story? Click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n \t The kingdom’s legal fraternity has indicated it would resist any attempts to reinstate Michael Ramodibedi as Court of Appeal president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/94x94.jpg\")
<\/a>The M&G<\/em> Centre for Investigative Journalism (amaBhungane) produced this story. All views are ours. See www.amabhungane.co.za <\/a> for our stories, activities and funding sources.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"