Mogalakwe’s troubles deepen
Former 2019 election candidate for Alliance for Progressives (AP), Mogalakwe Mogalakwe wants his Court costs reviewed by the High Court as he deems them too hefty. Mogalakwe who lost his election petition has filed an application seeking for the review of his costs and their taxation, which stands at the sum of P392, 000.
According to Mogalakwe’s attorney Faustino Ngandu they want Court to review taxation that was done by High Court Registrar. “We do not agree with the amount of the bill that Mogalakwe has been slapped with.
The bill is over P350, 000 which is high. The Registrar has allowed the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) attorneys to charge per attorney while the judgment only said the case was dismissed with cost. Therefore the cost should be for one attorney.
We expect the cost to be around P150, 000 not more than that,” Ngandu said in an interview on Wednesday. On the other hand Mmegi has learnt that the BDP attorneys have applied for writ of execution to cover their cost awarded to Mogalakwe.
They are apparently waiting for the Court’s response for a go ahead to recover the costs.
Mogalakwe ran against Kesebelwang Gaorongwe of the ruling BDP and Ehutsahetse Mokalake of the Umbrella for Democratic Change. When the votes were counted, Gaorongwe came out tops with 674 votes, followed by Mogalakwe with 637 votes while Mokalake managed only 72 votes.
He then petitioned the Independent Electoral Commission (first respondent) and BDP (second respondent) for what he termed irregularities that occurred during the 2019 general elections at Moralane Primary School polling station.
Among Mogalakwe’s allegations were that there was inadequate lighting in the polling room and non-extension of polling time even though there were people inside the voting station at the time of closure (7pm), both of which the respondents dismissed as untrue.
Commenting on the issue, AP secretary Dr Phenyo Butale said they are alive to the predicament Mogalakwe is in and they encourage Batswana to assist him to pay. “Mogalakwe’s case was about democracy and Batswana should step in and show their appreciation by assisting in footing the bill,” a Butale said.