CIV\APN\400\92

IN THE
HIGH COURT OF LESOTHO

In the
matter between:

MACHITJE
DAVID TLABA 1st Applicant

'MALITSANE
BONIFACE 2nd Applicant

ANDREAS
RAFONEKE 3rd Applicant

MOLUOANE
MOLUOANE 4th Applicant

MOHLOKI
AZEKIEL KHAKHAU 5th Applicant

LENKA
ERIC NTSIHLELE 6th Applicant

CAROLINE
'MACHELE MOKENELA 7th Applicant

'MAEMA
MAKHETHA 8th Applicant

MOLETSANE
RANYALI 9th Applicant

and

T.
KULEHILE 1st Respondent

P. NGOSA
2nd Respondent

L.
MAFATLE 3rd Respondent

R.
LECHESA 4th Respondent

L.
LECHESA 5th Respondent

P. MOLAOA
6th Respondent

V. KOTELO
7th Respondent

M. BOSIU
8th Respondent

JUDGMENT

Delivered
by the Honourable Mr. Justice J.L. Kheola on the 11th day of January,
1993.

Article 7
of the constitution of Iketsetseng Private School provides that the
Annual General Meeting of the Governing Body shall
be held within
three months of the end of the Financial Year, or as soon thereafter
as the Committee may deem convenient; and Special
General Meetings
may be called at any time by the Committee and shall be called by the
Secretary on a requisition in writing from
ten members of the
Governing Body.

2

It seems
to me that there was no need for the applicants to have brought this
application to this Court. They ought to have made
arrangements for a
Special General Meeting to be called. At such a Special General
Meeting they would have called upon the respondents
to call an Annual
General Meeting at which a new Committee would be elected. The
applicants would have to convince the Governing
Body that the
respondents' term of office has expired. The applicants have
prematurely come to this Court before they exhausted
the provisions
of their own constitution. They have not spoken to the Committee even
in an informal way to ask them when they are
going to call the Annual
General Meeting of the Governing Body.

I think
this is a proper case in which the Court can say the applicants have
failed to exhaust local remedies.

The
respondents have alleged that the Annual General Meetings for 1991
and 1992 at which they were elected and re-elected unopposed
were
held and that members of the Governing Body were all given notices
addressed to the parents and guardians which were given
to each and
every pupil at the school to deliver to the parent\guardian.
Announcements were made over Radio Lesotho and in all
major churches
in Maseru. In any case the proviso to Article 8 of the constitution
of Iketsetseng Private School is to the effect
that nothing done at
any meeting

3

shall be
invalid merely because some members or members have not received
notices. The elections which took place in 1991 and 1992
cannot be
regarded as invalid merely because applicants did not receive
notices.

In the
result the rule is discharged with costs.

J.L.
KHEOLA

JUDGE

11th
January, 1993.

For
Applicants - Mr. Sello

For
Respondents - Mr. Malebanye.