By Mothusi Thabane
Scores of cases involving Chinese nationals are said to be pending in the Leribe magistrates court due to the unavailability of Chinese interpreters.
One such case is that of the owner of CK Meat Wholesalers in Maputsoe who is alleged to have sold rotten sausages to consumers at M3.00 earlier this year.
Many of the people who ate the sausages are reported to have complained of stomach cramps and diarrhoea.
No concrete steps appear to have been taken against CK Meat Wholesalers, but the manager, Hui Chen has been indicted by the police for contravention of health safety regulations. The hitch though, even as police pressed charges, is that Hui Chen does not speak any of the official languages. The court has to find an interpreter in order for Hui Chen to have a fair hearing.
According to sources close to the case, the Hui Chen case is just a tip of the iceberg; there are many other cases pending in the Leribe magistrate court waiting for an interpreter, leading to suspicions that the lack of interpreters is only a ploy by the Chinese to evade the law.
The paper has learned from sources at the court that the prosecution has directed that if Chen does not speak Sesotho or English, an interpreter must be found before he appears in court. The police have since made a request for an interpreter who speaks Mandarin.
“There are many cases stalling in Hlotse because of lack of interpreters, but interpreters charge ridiculous amounts for their services,” the source said.
An official at the Leribe magistrate’s court said Hui Chen’s case is not registered at the court but could not comment further.
According to chief magistrate’s court public relations officer, Felleng Tṧiu, “In some cases the Chinese understand Sesotho and do not need an interpreter. Where their lawyers can communicate with them, they become their interpreters.
“The Maseru magistrate’s court has two interpreters who are contracted whenever there is a need for an interpreter. The interpreters bill the accounts section of the court, but if there is petty cash, they are paid from there. The same thing can be done in Leribe. They can have interpreters on stand-by.”
This was confirmed by renowned lawyer Tekane Maqakachane, who state that the responsibility to secure an interpreter lies with the court, not the police.
The issue of Chinese nationals apparently using the language barrier to evade justice is not new. The 1995 trial of Shag Ming Sheng illustrated the tactic of lack of knowledge of certain dialects of Mandarin as a ploy to stall trial.
In that case, Sheng had paid $4500 US Dollars to get to South Africa through Lesotho illegally. When this did not happen he shot Xu Wenda, the man who was to facilitate the transition from Lesotho to South Africa, in the forehead while he watched TV, went upstairs and found Xu Wenda’s wife Ha Ya Mei, in the bedroom, shot her in the head and strangled their 12-year old son, Jiao Yi a with rope.
In court, Sheng claimed not to understand any of the Mandarin dialects spoken in Lesotho. The case stalled as the court searched for interpreters, and for a moment, it seemed that Sheng wanted to be tried in China as he also challenged the jurisdiction of the court. Justice Maqutu smelled a rat, but expressed horror at the lack of interpreters when Chinese the break the law. “At the outset, we had difficulty with the Chinese interpreters. The court had to request the first the interpreter not to continue. Another interpreter, ‘Malibakiso Nkebenyane was satisfactory,” Nkebenyane had learned Mandarin in China and was able translate in the dialect that Sheng understood.
A vendor who sells used clothes across the street from CK Meat Wholesalers says people were “lining up” to buy the meat, especially the sausage which was sold for M3.00 a tray.
“It was ridiculous. How could you buy a tray of meat for M3.00? The police came with health inspectors and confiscated the meat. But people were still lining up,” she said.
Meanwhile, the rotten meat has been confiscated and destroyed, CK Meat Wholesalers remains open to the public, continuing business as usual.
“It has been an open-and-close case for a long time. Last year the shop was closed after rotten and expired meat was found, but it was soon opened under mysterious circumstances, and business continued as usual. We are not surprised that it is still open after so many people got sick. It is normal. The police always come with health inspectors, take the rotten meat and the next day, a new truck will come to deliver more meat. Each time the authorities come, they just tell them to fix their fridges, that’s all,” another vendor said.
While residents in Maputsoe had stomach cramps and diarrhoea from ingesting rotten and expired food, a recent post on social media highlighted the horror of a supermarket worker in Khubetsoana, Maseru, who has to clean mould from biscuits and repackage them. “If you break the biscuits in half, worms start crawling out,” the worker writes.
