Justice delayed is justice denied and more

Dr. Lesego’s story is a clarion call for countries to re-examine their legal frameworks. It isn't about undermining courts, but empowering them with updated tools. Legislative reform, clearer statutory definitions, and the phasing out of colonial case law in land disputes are essential if justice is to be timely, fair, and humane.

- BY Dr. M. M. JANAPRIYA

Though mostly based in Sri Lanka I keep returning to England for a few months every year. This is to put in the mandatory period of active work per year needed to keep my licence to practice going.

I have long retired from the NHS regular job and return only as an experienced locum being employed by an agency.

It was sometime around 3 a.m. in a sleepy London hospital that I met Dr. Teboho Lesego, himself, a locum from Lesotho. Over lukewarm vending-machine coffee and the distant beeping of monitors, our conversation drifted into unexpected yet astoundingly interesting territory, land disputes, generational trauma, and the tangled skeins of justice.

Lesego shared a story that was both sorrowful and surreal: his late father had owned a modest plot of land near Maseru since the 1930s. He had purchased it legally, registered it with the relevant authorities, and reaped it’s benefits peacefully for over two decades. Then, without warning in the early 1960s, a group forcibly took over the land, claiming possession without title.

What followed was a 60-year legal battle that saw the case hop through district courts, appeals, reversals, and finally the country's apex court. The final judgment, handed down just a couple of years ago, did not restore his father’s ownership but instead rewarded the trespassers with full title. The reason? A legal concept known as “prescriptive title,” interpreted through precedents dating back to colonial times.

Lesego, usually stoic and reserved, couldn't hide the tremble in his voice: “How can a person who steals land end up owning it just because the courts took too long to decide? My father waited for justice. And it never came.