my judgment on the application unless it is placed before me and dealt with by counsel in this application.’ [37] Before I step off the issue of trial, I must emphasize that I have no idea who the judge is going to be in this matter, as it is in the discretion of the Judge President and it is a decision that he is yet to make. When the matter is ready to go to trial the Judge President will still assign a judge to hear the matter and nothing precludes the applicant from making representation to the Judge President in this regard when the time comes. [38] I should point out that I am not sure what the applicant meant by the appointment of an or judge to hear this matter. Whether that is meant to be a ‘outside’ ‘independent’ judge from a foreign jurisdiction or an acting judge appointed from the ranks of the Namibian Legal fraternity, is not clear. The fact of the matter is that regardless of who the assigned judge is that will be seized with the matter, he or she will find him or herself in the exact same position as every other judge serving on the High Court Bench would be subordinate to the third respondent unless such judge is the judge president. A proposition that the applicant has some right to trial by a judge other than one subordinate to the deputy judge president or from without the borders of this country even in interlocutory matters has far reaching implications for the administration of justice in this country and is one I cannot sustain without the benefit of the views of the head of jurisdiction and the Judicial Service Commission. [39] That is so because I noted with concern that Mr Namandje alluded to the fact that there might be many other interlocutory hearings in this matter. That will obviously exacerbate the problem that the applicant currently has. Which judges will be assigned to hear these matters if all the current judge should be disqualified from hearing it? Duty to sit: [40] Once a matter has been assigned to him or her by the head of jurisdiction who no doubt takes into account all the relevant considerations, a judge has the duty to hear a
my judgment on the application unless it is placed before me and dealt with by counsel in this application.’ [37] Before I step off the issue of trial, I must emphasize that I have no idea who the judge is going to be in this matter, as it is in the discretion of the Judge President and it is a decision that he is yet to make. When the matter is ready to go to trial the Judge President will still assign a judge to hear the matter and nothing precludes the applicant from making representation to the Judge President in this regard when the time comes. [38] I should point out that I am not sure what the applicant meant by the appointment of an ‘outside’ or ‘independent’ judge to hear this matter. Whether that is meant to be a judge from a foreign jurisdiction or an acting judge appointed from the ranks of the Namibian Legal fraternity, is not clear. The fact of the matter is that regardless of who the assigned judge is that will be seized with the matter, he or she will find him or herself in the exact same position as every other judge serving on the High Court Bench would be subordinate to the third respondent unless such judge is the judge president. A proposition that the applicant has some right to trial by a judge other than one subordinate to the deputy judge president or from without the borders of this country even in interlocutory matters has far reaching implications for the administration of justice in this country and is one I cannot sustain without the benefit of the views of the head of jurisdiction and the Judicial Service Commission. [39] That is so because I noted with concern that Mr Namandje alluded to the fact that there might be many other interlocutory hearings in this matter. That will obviously exacerbate the problem that the applicant currently has. Which judges will be assigned to hear these matters if all the current judge should be disqualified from hearing it? Duty to sit: [40] Once a matter has been assigned to him or her by the head of jurisdiction who no doubt takes into account all the relevant considerations, a judge has the duty to hear a
Angula%20v%20LorentzAngula%20Inc%20(I%20599-2015)%20[2017]%20NAHCMD%20244%20(21%20August%202017).docx