Own correspondent
6th April 2022
The University of Botswana(UB) held a public seminar at its Conference Centre in Village where the contributions were made to the Commission of Inquiry on the historic constitutional review of Botswana’s much maligned constitution.
The Vice Chancellor Professor David Norris, called it a “momentous occasion … and a ‘once in a generation opportunity.”
The University’s Chancellor, Tebelelo Seretse, said she hoped that kgotla meetings across the country would be packed with people so that the constitution reflects the will of this generation.
She registered her concern about the lack of political zeal by local civilians and implored the public to appreciate the impact that politics have on their daily lives. She referenced example of a Namibian politician who said that Namibians were non-committal about political affairs in the country but vocal on issues affecting war between Russia and Ukraine.
Namibians have reportedly been quick to phone the President’s office to ask the government to rescue Namibians from the war zone. This was despite their silence in a conflict that has been brewing for a long time, before it erupted into a military war in February.
She also expressed hope of the need to introduce minimum education requirements for politicians in Botswana saying decisions of political affected the daily lives of Batswana.
Seretse maintained that if a person gets elected into political office having obtained a form three or form five qualification, that person will act – through no fault of their own – in accordance with the intellectual skill set of a form three or form five graduate.
Hence when that person goes to international meetings to lobby international community for national financial support, it should not be surprising if he or she fumbles during their presentation.
The keynote speaker at event and former Vice Chancellor and head of law department Professor Bojosi Otlhogile, was brought ‘out of retirement’ by the university for the seminar.
The legal giant gave a very informative legal history lecture and made notable contributions throughout the seminar. He explained that the law had gone through three phases of development globally in the modern era and encouraged the public to consider the phase it will take the country to with the new constitution. He said a new constitution is long overdue and cited Botswana’s relatively short 50 page constitution to South Africa’s 127 page constitution, which he said is still growing as it gets developed.
Lots of speakers cited the South African constitution to highlight ways to improve the law. This is of little surprise as South Africa has been praised internationally for its constitution which is recognized as one of the best in the world. It has the advantage of a tumultuous history, which has provided it with first hand lessons on human rights abuses. This experience has informed its views on the ideal manner in which people should be treated and resultantly, the manner in which the law should be written in order to set reasonable parameters on the conduct of civilians, whilst protecting human rights.
Former judge of the high court and current senior lecturer at the University, Dr Omkemetse Tshosa, expressed his hope that Batswana would consider placing the office of the Chief Justice in a position where it would not risk being viewed with less eminence than it deserves.
He said that the Chief Justice was the head of the judiciary, yet in practice the President of the Court of Appeal has the last say on all court cases in his or her capacity as the president of the court.
He further said that Chief Justice would likely be wounded if his decisions that he made as a judge of the high court kept being overturned by the Court of Appeal.
Earlier on in the day, Seretse, who gave a candid yet eloquent and humorous speech, noticed that Justice Khan – a judge of the local high court – was in attendance. She then immediately said if she had been aware she would not be speaking as she was.
A possible reason for noting Justice Khan’s presence became apparent when the clearly, very passionate judge, strongly interjected from the audience differing with Dr Tshosa. The microphone was brought to him and he opined that Dr Tshosa’s views on how a judicial officer may feel after his or decision is overturned by the Court of Appeal is immature, showing a wrong attitude and said that lawyers opinions will differ at times implying that the ‘loss’ should be accepted with grace.
He said that he had never met one colleague who felt wounded after his or decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal. Before he returned the mike he explained that he may have become a little bit excited during his speech, which was met with laughter from Dr Tshosa and the public.
Dr Tshosa who also a judge of the High Court of Botswana, said he was not in disagreement with Justice Khan, as he was referring to the Chief Justice having his or her decisions frequently being overturned by his subordinates at the Court of Appeal.
Though a lengthy event it was full of interesting moments as the public convened for this historic event.
