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

Published date01 January 2016
AuthorHoolo Nyane
DOI10.10520/EJC196789
Date01 January 2016
Pages165-176
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.

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