Commentary on the case of The President of the Court of Appeal v The Prime Minister and Others (2013)

• Published date: 01 January 2016
• Author: Hoolo Nyane
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC196789
• Date: 01 January 2016
• Pages: 165-176

Commentary on the case of The President of the Court of Appeal v

The Prime Minister and Others (2013)

Nyane, Hoolo*

Introduction

The case of President of the Court of Appeal v The Prime Minister and

Others1 is one of the many constitutional cases that were litigated in

the superior courts in Lesotho following the unprecedented political

change ushered-in by the 2012 general election. Since return to

electoral democracy in 1993, a lot of principles that underwrite

constitutional and political practice in Lesotho were largely

presumed because election did not bring real change in the

continuity of political system. It was not until the 2012 election that

government changed as a result of election.2 So, sequel to the

political change, a lot of constitutional principles were put to real

test for the first time. One such principle which came under sharp

focus is the removal of a sitting judge in terms of section 125 of the

Constitution of Lesotho. Since the adoption of the current

Constitution of Lesotho, occasion has never arisen where a sitting

president of the Court of Appeal had to be removed due to

misconduct thereby setting in motion the procedural and

substantive precepts of section 125 of the Constitution. Even under

section 117 of the Independence Constitution,3 which is the verbatim

forerunner of the current section, superior courts have never had an

occasion to unpack the true nature of the ramifications of removing

* LLB(NUL), LLM(NWU), LLD Candidate (UNISA), Public Law Lecturer,

NUL, hnyane@yahoo.co.uk.

1 C of A (CIV) No 62/2013 (unreported as yet).

2 Nyane, H. ‘Lesotho’s Second Experiment in Coalition Politics: Priorities

and Challenges’. Occasional Paper, No 2 of 2015. Maseru: Transformation

Resource Centre.

3 See Constitution of Lesotho, Schedule to Lesotho Independence Order

No 1172 of 1966.