|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You Are
Here: |
Local News|
Thursday, August 28, 2008 - Web posted at 8:00:12 AM GMT SA heavyweights on bench for Teek appeal WERNER MENGESTHREE of South Africa's most senior Judges, two long-serving Magistrates, a veteran advocate and a fast-rising young lawyer are part of the latest batch of appointments of Acting Judges of Namibia's Supreme Court and High Court made by the President. |
|
South African Judges of Appeal Piet Streicher, Kenneth Mthiyane and Fritz Brand, who are all members of the bench of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, have been appointed as Acting Judges of Appeal of Namibia's Supreme Court to hear the State's appeal to Namibia's highest court in the criminal trial of former Supreme Court Judge of Appeal Pio Teek, it was announced from the chambers of the Chief Justice at the end of last week. The three Appeal Judges last month decided to allow the State to appeal to the Supreme Court against the High Court judgement in which Teek was acquitted in late July 2006 on charges of abducting and sexually molesting two young girls in Windhoek in early 2005. A date for the hearing of the State appeal in the Supreme Court must still be determined, it was indicated from the office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court yesterday. Three other temporary appointments to the Supreme Court bench that have been announced are those of former Chief Justice Johan Strydom, long-serving Zambian Acting Judge of Appeal Fred Chomba, and High Court Judge President Petrus Damaseb, who have all been appointed as Acting Judges of Appeal from September 1 to the end of August next year. The appointment of Acting Judges of the High Court - like the other appointments also on recommendation of the Judicial Service Commission - were also announced. The President appointed a member of the Society of Advocates of Namibia, Johan Swanepoel, as an Acting Judge for the period from September 16 to the end of February next year. Swanepoel (60) has practised as an advocate for close to 25 years - since late 1983. He was practising law as an attorney at Swakopmund for some six years before he joined the Windhoek Bar, and had been a State advocate in the office of the then Attorney General in Windhoek before that. Appointed as an Acting Judge from September 16 to the end of November is Otjiwarongo-based Regional Court Magistrate Christie Liebenberg, who has served as a Magistrate since 1988. Liebenberg (52) also served as an Acting Judge in late 2006 and early this year. Fellow Magistrate Alfred Siboleka, who is based at Keetmanshoop, is set to serve as an Acting Judge from the start of October to the end of November. Siboleka (53), who hails from the Kasika area in the far east of the Caprivi Region, has been serving as a Magistrate since 1991. He is currently the Divisional Magistrate for the Karas and Hardap Regions. It is Siboleka's first appointment to the High Court bench. Also set to make his debut on the bench is Windhoek-based lawyer Sisa Namandje, who will serve as an Acting Judge from October 13 to the end of November. At 35, Namandje is one of the youngest appointees ever to the High Court bench. Namandje, who hails from Onyaanya, a village in the Oshikoto Region that also counts Prime Minister Nahas Angula as one of its sons, has been a legal practitioner since March 2003. Before going into private legal practice Namandje held a rank as a lieutenant colonel in the Namibia Defence Force, as Head of Policy and Planning in the Ministry of Defence. |
|
||||
PO Box 20783 - Windhoek - 42 John Meinert Street Tel: +264 (61) 279600 - Fax: +264 (61) 279602
|
