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…says it is “unjust” to force LSL to withdraw Thejane fraud case
…damages to victims because criminal cases “will never” be completed
Mpesi Harvester
The president of the Lesotho Bar (LSL), Lawyer Lintle Tuke, has accused Chief Justice Sakoane Sakoane of being blinded by “hatred” against the Bar.
This “hatred” led Judge Saccone to force LSL to withdraw a civil lawsuit against lawyer Adv Thejane Thejane, which had been filed over his alleged theft of M262 000 from clients.
On Monday, Judge Sakoane asked LSL to withdraw the civil case filed against Adv Thejane for defrauding its client, ‘Mats’epang Setala, of M262 000.
The money was part of the RM350,000 compensation LNIG paid to Ms Setara in lieu of a road accident compensation claim.
The insurance company reached a settlement with Ms. Setala in March this year and deposited the funds into the Thejane Chambers Trust account on May 14, 2024, which the lawyer has transferred to his own use(See above).
According to the agreement reached between the two, Adv Thejane was only entitled to receive 88,000 Bangladesh pounds out of 350,000 Bangladesh pounds as legal fees.
LSL immediately took court action and successfully obtained an order freezing Adv Thejane’s Nedbank account. But it appeared that there was no money left in the account.
When the case was due to go to court on Monday, Judge Sakhoane told LSL to stop “following the crowd” and not give Ms Settala false hope.
Instead, he urged LSL to withdraw the matter and report Adv Thejane to the police for criminal prosecution.(See above).
Faced with Judge Sakoane’s advice, a disappointed Adv Tuke toldlesotho times Yesterday, the case was withdrawn as per Judge Sakhoane’s request that Ms Settala would need at least five years to get a fair trial.
He said a successful civil action would at least ensure Adv Thejane reimbursed her.
“Who was fawning over this poor woman when her money was stolen? What we want is to give the money back to this poor woman,” Adv Tuke said.
“We asked the court to order Thejane to pay the money to the woman. This means that if we had won in court, we would have been able to get a court order ordering Thejane to pay the money to the woman. We would then work to enforce that court order.
“The court order has been enforced. His (Thejane’s) properties can be seized and then auctioned to repay the money stolen from this poor woman.”
Adv Tuke said that after obtaining an order from Nedbank to freeze Adv Thejane’s account, the statement contained therein indicated that only M4 was left in the account…
“But if you don’t have a court order, can you say you helped the woman? Even if you have issues with the bar and how it operates, the case ultimately belongs to the woman,” he said.
“She took the case to court with the support of the Bar Association, which you don’t like. It’s simply unconscionable that you think the Bar Association is not working the way it should be.
“The bottom line is that your hatred for the Bar Council caused that poor member of the public to leave the court without assistance. A member of the public was deprived of money and went to court with the support of the Bar Council. But you don’t like the Bar Council, you have your own views about it and those views prevented you from giving justice to that lady,” Adv Tuke said in his comments directed at the Chief Judge.
He wondered how Ms Setara would be compensated since Judge Saccone had not yet ordered Adv Thejane to reimburse her.
“The question is, why didn’t the court order Setara to be paid her money? Is it because the Bar Association is working for the gallery?”
He said Ms Settala’s case could be handled in two ways: civil and criminal.
Therefore, there was no need for Judge Saccone to involve the police in the civil case.
Criminal charges may be filed later, he said.
“There can be two proceedings for one matter. Criminal and civil proceedings. Police do not get involved in civil cases, they only deal with criminal cases,” he said.
Ms Settala reported Adv Thejane to LSL on July 18 this year.
The same day, LSL helped her file a civil lawsuit against her attorney.
The suit also seeks a freeze on Adv Thejane’s bank account, where Ms Setala’s RM350,000 was deposited, and an order for her bank statements.
On the same day, the court issued an order in the matter.
“It was through this statement that we were able to ascertain that there was no money in the account. What we are now seeking from the court is a final order requiring Thejane to repay the money.
“Now the Chief Justice said we should report the matter to the police. Who says we didn’t deal with it? Because I don’t remember the judiciary or the Chief Justice ever writing to us asking about criminal proceedings,” Adv Tuke said.
“There is no statute of limitations on criminal cases, which means a case can be filed at any time. That criminal case will still be filed. But in this case, which case is urgent? Shouldn’t the priority be to ensure that the woman’s salary is paid first?”
He added: “Let’s say there’s a criminal case and Thejane goes to court, he applies for bail and is released. The case drags on for years and five years later it’s closed. The verdict is handed down and Thejane loses and is sentenced to jail, or pays a fine, or wins.
“Now, this poor woman has to wait five years. How is she going to live? What if she doesn’t get real justice and her money back when the final verdict comes out?”
He said the priority was to ensure the woman’s money was safe, a request the chief justice rejected.
He said LSL was initiating internal proceedings against Adv Thejane but “the Chief Justice did not inquire about it once”.
The only procedure to ensure Ms Settala gets her money back has been declared invalid by the chief justice, meaning “there is nothing we can do about this woman”.
“The only thing that remains is that Adv Thejane should face the consequences of his actions even though he cannot pay back the money he owes this woman because the Chief Magistrate refused to order him to return her money,” Adv Tuke said.
“We as a society made sacrifices and spent about RM30,000 to hire a lawyer for this woman. This must be an expensive farce, right?” he asked rhetorically.
“We tried everything to get justice for this woman but failed. We are ashamed that the chief justice’s personal feelings towards the Bar Association prevented this woman from getting justice. We don’t know what the chief justice thought of her.”
Justice Tuke said it would have been good if Justice Sakhoan had known that LSL was about to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) to “work hand in hand with the police”.
“When the police investigate criminal offences against lawyers, the Bar Council can provide relevant information against these lawyers. We discussed all these issues with Deputy Commissioner Molai and we held a meeting with him,” he said.
“We are at the stage of signing a formal agreement, a memorandum of understanding between the Bar Association and LMPS. The chief justice is not aware of this. He is just expressing his opinion in open court, exercising his judicial function. It is unfortunate.”
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