Maseru, Jan. 26 — The High Court will on February 23, 2026 get an update on progress made to prepare for hearing of a corruption case against the current Member of Parliament for Matlakeng Constituency, Dr. Mahali Phamotse together with ‘Mapaseka Kolotsane and Ratsiu Majara.
The Court through Justice Molefi Makara had in November last year stated that the case was not ready for hearing, adding that it could not, therefore, be assigned a hearing date.
This was after the court was informed that some of the pre-trial stages such as full discovery of documents have not been completed.
The defence had indicated that the prosecution had not furnished them with all the documents needed to prepare for the case adding that among those that they were provided with, there were those that were illegible therefore needed to be replaced.
Apart from the issue of full discovery, another issue that was discussed was the Pre-Trial Conference which the court directed that it be revisited as the prosecutor who was initially seized with the case, Advocate Shaun Abrahams, no longer has a brief to prosecute it.
It is expected that following the update on the pending issues, the court will be able to set the hearing date for this matter.
It is alleged that Dr. Phamotse who was a Minister of Education and training when the alleged offences occurred, working together with her co-accused, unlawfully influenced an awarding of the 2015 High Schools Textbooks Tender to Epic Printers and Molumeli PTY (Ltd).
It is further alleged that she took undue advantage as the Minister and abused her position to influence an amendment to the years of experience in the Ministry of Education and Training’s tender bid document called ‘ development, printing, supply and delivery of textbooks and teacher’s guides for Grade 5 for the national curriculum development centre’.
The legal team in this case is made up of Advocates Motiea Teele (KC), Karabo Mohau (KC) and Salemane Phafane (KC) who are for the defence while Adv. Peleha Joala is for the prosecution.
Ends/SM/tl
