Nat Molomo
MASERU — Acting Chief Justice Tšeliso Monaphathi said on Friday the courts have not been sufficiently recognised for their large contribution to good governance, democratic ideals and a sound economy. Justice Monaphathi was speaking on the Commercial Court’s open day. The country’s commercial court, which was launched on February 1, 2013 to deal with commercial matters, is headed by Judge Lisebo Chaka-Makhooane, who works with Acting Judge Lebohang Molete.
“This is precisely what the commercial division of the High Court is mandated to achieve. To create an investor-friendly, growing economy that can create employment opportunities for this nation in an expeditious manner of settling disputes that come before it,” he said. Monaphathi said the success of this project could not have been achieved without the contribution of government, and development partners, and the Millennium Challenge Account Compact.
In his remarks Judge Lebohang Molete explained that the Commercial Court has a Commercial Court Users’ Committee which comprises members of the bench who sit on the commercial list, from time to time. Members are nominated by the law society, banks, the insurances, private sector, academia, chambers of commerce, representatives from various ministries like trade, law finance and other stakeholders.
Molete said the Commercial Court Users’ Committee should meet regularly to consider improvements to the operation and organisation of this specialised court. “The committee is meant to establish best practices for the court and gather good ideas from the users to improve practice and procedures in the commercial division, for the benefit of stakeholders by those who practise in court,” Molete said.
He said the work of the committee is work in progress which, it is hoped, will finally lead a complete set of best practices that would be formulated for the benefit of the Commercial Court. He said the recommendations might finally become future practice of the directives in the Commercial Court. The court would regularly request and obtain input from various users and constituents of the system including the judiciary, registrars and lawyers.
He said the more the courts are accessible, user-friendly, and well organised, the more they would be transparent. This would also make them critically more acceptable and make users and all concerned confident. “The stakeholders should be consulted every step of the way in all its processes,” Justice Monaphathi said. He said this was why the High Court has complimentary court mechanisms like mediation procedure as well as the public users committee and commercial bar.
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