Parliament throws out Keorapetses constitution plea
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The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) dominated parliament has once again rejected a motion calling for the review of the Constitution of the Republic of Botswana. There have been many unsuccessful calls from various quarters calling for the same exercise.
This time the motion was tabled last week by Member of Parliament for Selibe Phikwe West, Dithapelo Keorapetse. In an interview with Weekendpost Keorapetse emphasized that a constitutional review was appropriate considering the evolving democracy that Botswana is faced with. According to Keorapetse, Botswana is one of the few African Countries with an old constitution crafted during colonial rule.
“Most countries in Africa have reviewed their template constitutions given to them by their erstwhile colonial masters. When these African countries matured, they decided to write their own constitutions with no input by outsiders, especially their former colonizers,” he said.
The constitution of Botswana was drawn up in 1964 when Bechuanaland readied for independence. Ever since then there hasn’t been a holistic review of the country legal blueprint.
The 1963-1964 constitutional talks, held in Lobatse were between the then colonial masters, chiefs and representatives of few political parties existing at the time. At the time most Batswana were illiterate, let alone politically developed. “The country was very poor. There was no intelligentsia and no professional bodies such as the Law Society of Botswana and other civil society organizations. There wasn’t much consultation and even if there was, very few Batswana could understand what was required of them in terms of their contribution to the constitution.”
All these pre independence attributes, Keorapetse believes resulted in few Batswana meaningfully participating towards the development of Botswana’s constitution. He argues that today contemporary Botswana is far much better, that review for constitution is a timely call considering the existence of civil society organizations, academics, professional institutions, business interest groups, and trade unions, groups representing marginalized groups and or “minorities”, youth, women and many other stakeholders with full understanding of the subject matter.
He says compared to colonial era, today Botswana has more political parties with insightful, vibrant, intelligent politicians who are well grounded on issues of law. The Botswana Congress Party (BCP) spokesperson reiterates that there is a need to mobilize resources for a comprehensive review of the constitution. The youthful legislator told Weekendpost that it was essential to set up a constitutional review commission and call a national constitutional conference where the joint knowledge of the people can be sought regarding the development of the country’s constitution.
Globally Botswana has been showed with praises on international fora as a shining example and true epitome of democracy revered for its sustenance of liberal democratic principles since independence. Botswana has never postponed general elections and it always conducts non violent and supposedly free and fair polls. However, there are debates about the extent to which the country’s constitution enshrines democratic principles and the manner in which its strong soft autocratic state conducts the country’s affairs. Jurists have observed that Botswana’s constitutional development has been made by judges adjudicating cases in the courts. But it has been argued that judges don’t make the law as this is the responsibility of the legislature and that for this reason, “Batswana and parliament should enact a new constitution,” said Keorapetse.
The former University of Botswana Lecture shuns the ruling party‘s view that a piecemeal approach towards developing the constitution is the best method purportedly because it is cheap and that there is no urgent need for overhaul. “The exercise of constitutional review would be expensive; it is difficult to place a price tag on democratic values. We have an opportunity as a country to reclaim our rightful place in the continent and the world as a shining example of true democracy by modernizing our democracy through developing the constitution and accordingly our democratic institutions,” he says.
Critics of Botswana‘s constitution believe that Botswana has weak oversight bodies. The Opposition is of the view that watchdog institution like DCEC, Ombudsman and other are toothless and only play to the tune of government and ruling party music. “There is a need for improvement and establishment of new key democratic institutions including watchdog institutions or institutions supporting democracy such as the Human Rights Commission, Media, Ombudsman, Auditor General,” added Keorapetse. He further said it was important that Botswana constitution be aligned to international democratic standards and that Batswana, united in their diversity, meaningfully participate towards constitutional development.
Legal experts believe that the current constitution of Botswana does not include the the recognized generation of Human Rights. Another focal point and main issues of concern with the country current constitution is the powers of the president. It is believed the President is too powerful for a democratic state, currently the constitution of Botswana provide for the Presidency‘s supervisory role over all oversight institutions and he also appoints the Directors of all the Key bodies, something which critics believe raises conflict of interest and poses threat to democracy.
Furthermore Keorapetse observed that parliament and Judiciary were not autonomous “Parliament’s powers and independence should be enhanced. The judiciary must be more independent and have integrity,” he said. For many years academics, lawyers, opposition political parties, media and other pro-democratic Batswana have been bewailing the powers of the presidency. Pierre du Toit correctly observed in 1995 that one of the distinctive traits that emerged in the democratic politics in the post-independence Botswana is that at the national level, presidential politics dominated other aspects of parliamentary process.
The executive power of the republic vests in the president (Section 47(1) of the Constitution of Botswana) and he shall act in his own deliberate judgment and he is not obliged to take or follow any advice tendered to him by any person or authority (Section 47(2).
Key Dingake argued, in his 1999 book-Key Aspects of the Constitutional Law of Botswana, that this effectively authorizes the president to rule single handedly and/or authorizes dictatorship and that it is difficult to comprehend the wisdom behind this provision considering that in Botswana the president is not directly elected. Dingake further cautions about section 41of the constitution in the same book that the president is effectively above the law as long as he holds office.
Keorapetse argues that the status quo in which parliament has no authority whatsoever to remove the president even on account of serious misconduct, serious crime or misdemeanor or breach of the constitution or any law is serious threat to democracy and justice.
“The constitution does not provide for impeachment of the president but provides for motion of no confidence on the government, it must be reviewed in part to provide for impeachment of the president by parliament for felonies, misdemeanors, misconduct and breach of the law,” he said.
The Selibe Phikwe West lawmaker further states that the constitution must provide that the president can be sued for civil or criminal wrongs. “Botswana doesn’t need strongmen to lead it; it needs strong democratic institutions and liberal democratic constitution reflecting the aspirations of the people,” he said. When contributing to the debate in parliament Gaborone Boningnton North legislator and leader of opposition, Duma Boko affirmed necessity for a constitutional review saying it would enshrine all voices of Batswana, hence nourishing the country’s democracy.
Boko observed that oversight bodies which he labels toothless and just a waste of taxpayers’ money as they are captured by the executive and the President. Member of Parliament for Bobonong, Shaw Kgathi quashed the need to have a constitution review, noting that the current constitution has the interest of Batswana at heart and has served the country well since independence. Dithapelo Keorapetse who is unmoved on his call for a constitution review cautions against constitutional reform spearheaded by the executive incase parliament considers his motion in future saying it may further strengthen executive power over the judicature and parliament.
”Calls for constitutional review emanate from excessive constitutional and other discretionary powers of the president vis-à-vis other democratic institutions. Constitutional reform advocates are calling for more powers and independence of parliament and the courts so that these institutions can provide effective checks and balances on the government. If the executive proposes a constitution that would entrench more dictatorship like the current document, Batswana must reject it outright,” said Keorapetse.
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BMD disapproves homosexuality
The newly elected Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) Executive Committee led by Pastor Reverend Thuso Tiego has declared their disapproval of homosexuality saying it is anti-Christianity and Botswana culture.
Speaking at a Media Briefing this past week, BMD President Tiego said Botswana has been a country that respects culture hence endorsing homosexuality will be catastrophic.
“Our young generation grew up being taught about types of families, if homosexuality is passed, at what age will our children be introduced to homosexuality?” he rhetorically asked.
He continued: “If we are going to allow homosexuality then the next day, another person will come and say he wants to practice bestiality. What are we going to do because we have already allowed for this one (homosexuality) and at the end it will be a total mess.” Bestiality is sexual relations between a human being and an animal
This according to Tiego will give those people an opportunity thus disrupting known Botswana beliefs. He however dismissed any notion that the decision to condemn homosexuality should not be linked to the top two of the committee who are men of cloth. “This is a decision by the whole committee which respects the culture of Botswana and it should not be perceived that because we are clergymen we are influencing them, but even if we do, politics and religion are inter-related.”
Of late the church and the human rights organization have been up in arms because of the high court decision to allow for same sex marriages. Ministries ganged up, petitioned parliament and threatened to vote out any legislator who will support the idea. The ruling party, BDP which was to table the amendment in the constitution, ended up deferring it.
BMD President further revealed that he is aware of what really led to the split of the party and he is on course to transform as they approach 2024 elections.
“There are so many factors that led to split of party amongst others being leadership disputes, personal egos and ambitions, toxic factionalism and ideological difference just to mention a few, but we are transforming the party and I am confident that we will do well in the coming elections.
In addition, Tiego is hopeful that they will take the government as they feel it is time to rebrand Botswana politics and bring in fresh blood of leaders.
He further hinted that they are coming with positive transformation as they eye to better the lives of Batswana.
“When we assume government, we promise to be transparent, free and fair electoral processes and encourage pluralism as way of getting back to our roots of being a democratic country as it seems like the current government has forgotten about that important aspect,” Tiego explained.
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North Korea diplomats in suspected illegal ivory trade
Reeling under the increasing barrage of stinging international sanctions, the isolated North Korean regime is reportedly up to its old trickery, this time in a more complicated web of murky operations that have got the authorities of five southern African countries at sixes and sevens as they desperately try to tighten their dragnet around Pyongyang’s spectral network of illicit ivory and rhino horn trade.
It is an intricate network of poaching for elephant tusks and rhino horns that spans Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, with the main sources of the contraband being Botswana and South Africa.
The syndicate running the illegal trafficking of the poached contraband is suspected to be controlled by two shadowy North Korean government operatives with close links to one Han Tae-song, a disgraced North Korean career diplomat who, while serving as the second secretary at his country’s embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe, was expelled in 1992 after he was fingered as the mastermind behind a similar illegal ring that was busted by the country’s authorities.
This disturbing tale of malfeasance by North Korean state actors is as real as it gets.
Recent reports indicate that authorities in the source countries are jointly battling to plug holes created by the shadowy syndicate which allegedly has on its payroll, park rangers, border officials and cross-border truck drivers.
Even more disturbing are allegations that some wildlife officials are conniving in misrepresenting numbers of retrieved rhino horns and ivory from poachers and getting kickbacks for their involvement in the pilfering of ivory and rhino horns from government stockpiles especially in South Africa.
In a shocking and well-orchestrated movie-style heist in South Africa, thieves in June this year made off with 51 rhino horns after breaking into a very secure government stockpile facility of the North West Parks Board (NWPB).
While some suspects from South Africa and Malawi were nabbed in a government sting operation, none of the rhino horns – 14 of which were very large specimens that can fetch serious money on the black market – were recovered.
A report of the heist said the police were lethargic by eight hours in responding to an emergency alert of the robbery which was described by North West police spokesperson Brigadier Sabata Mokgwabone as “… a case of business robbery…”
Thabang Moko, a security analyst in Pretoria says the military precision in the burglary, delays in police response, and failure to recover the stolen rhino horns is dubious. “This development lends credence to suspicions that some government officials could be part of a shadowy syndicate run by foreign buyers of rhino horns and ivory,” Moko says.
It is understood that in light of the rhino horns heist in North West, South Africa’s Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, Barbara Creecy on 1 August, shared her concerns to her counterparts in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique calling for greater regional cooperation to combat the illegal wildlife trafficking which she believes is being masterminded by the Far East’s buyers of the ill-gotten horns and ivory.
It is believed that foreign kingpins involved in perpetuating the illegal trade are mainly North Koreans vying against Vietnamese and Cambodian buyers in the quest for dominance of the illicit trade in rhino horns and ivory sourced from southern Africa.
Creecy’s concerns, which she also shared to South Africa’s state-run broadcaster SABC, echoed Moko’s worries that the North West heist may have been an inside job.
According to Creecy, there was a need for the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol)’s greater involvement in joint investigations by affected countries as there were indications of ‘local knowledge’ of the North West job and that syndicates, “Higher up the value chain actually recruit park rangers to the illegal ivory trade network.”
Botswana’s Environment and Tourism Minister Philda Kereng is on national record admitting that poaching was a source of headaches to her government, especially considering that the daring poachers were making successful incursions into secure areas protected by the Botswana Defence Force (BDF).
This came after poachers gunned down two white rhinos at the BDF-protected Khama Rhino Sanctuary in August 2022 despite Kereng putting the time frame of the killings between October and November 2022.
Kereng hinted at the existence of Asian controlled syndicates and acknowledged that the surge in poaching in Botswana is driven by the “increased demand for rhino horn on the international market” where in Asia rhino horns are believed to be potent in traditional medicines and for their imagined therapeutic properties.
Botswana has in the past recorded an incident of a group of an all-Asian reconnaissance advance team teams being nabbed by the country’s intelligence service in the Khama Rhino Sanctuary.
Masquerading as tourists, the group, with suspected links to North Korea and China, was discovered to be collecting crucial data for poachers.
Also according to reliable information at hand, an undisclosed number of wildlife parks rangers were arrested between September 2022 and January this year, after information surfaced that they connived in the smuggling of rhino horns and ivory from Botswana.
One of the rangers reportedly admitted getting paid to falsify information on recovered horns and ivory which were smuggled out of the country through its vast and porous eastern border with South Africa, and making their way to their final destination in Mozambique via back roads and farmlands in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
“We are aware that in the past year, some rhino horns and ivory illegally obtained from Botswana through poaching activities and shady deals by some elements within our wildlife and national parks department, have found their way out of the country and end up in Mozambique’s coastal ports for shipment to the Far East,” a Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) source says.
Independent investigations reveal that two North Korean buyers, one of them only identified as Yi Kang-dae [confirmed to be an intelligence official in the country’s state security apparatus], acting on behalf of the disgraced Han Tae-song, financed the entire operation on two occasions between 2022 and 2023, to move at least 18 rhino horns and 19 elephant tusks from Botswana, including pay-offs – mostly to border patrol and customs officials for safe passage – along the knotty conduit across South Africa’s north western lands, then across south-eastern Zimbabwe into Mozambique.
According to a trusted cross-border transport operator in Zimbabwe, the rhino horns and elephant tusks were illegally handed over to smugglers in Mozambique at an obscure illegal crossing point 15km north of Zimbabwe’s Forbes Border Post in November 2022 and February this year.
The end buyers in Mozambique? “It is quite an embarrassment for us, but we have solid evidence that two North Korean buyers, one of them who is linked to a former notorious diplomat from that country who has been in the past involved in such illegal activities in Zimbabwe, oversaw the loading of rhino horns and ivory onto a China-bound ship from one of our ports,” a top government source in Maputo said before declining to divulge more information citing ongoing investigations.
Yi Kang-dae and his accomplice’s whereabouts are presently unclear to Mozambican authorities whose dragnet reportedly recently netted some key actors of the network. Han Tae-song currently serves as North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations in Switzerland.
North Korean diplomats have in the past used Mozambique as a final transit point for the shipment of rhino horns to the Far East.
In May 2015, Mozambican authorities nabbed two North Koreans, one of them a Pretoria-based diplomat and political counsellor identified as Pak Chol-jun after they were caught in possession of 4.5kg of rhino horn pieces and US$100,000 cash.
Pak’s accomplice, Kim Jong-su, a Taekwondo instructor also based in South Africa, was fingered as a North Korean spy and returned to North Korea under suspicious circumstances on the heels of Pak’s expulsion from South Africa in November 2016.
A security source in Zimbabwe closely following current developments says there is a big chance that Han Tae-song may have revived the old smuggling network he ran while posted in Zimbabwe in the 90s.
“The biting international sanctions against North Korea in the past decade may have prompted Han to reawaken his network which has been dormant for some time,” the source says. “There is no telling if the shady network is dead now given that Han’s two front men have not been nabbed in Mozambique. More joint vigilance is needed to destroy the operation at the source and at the end of the line.”
North Korean diplomats have, as early as October 1976, been fingered for engaging in illegal activities ranging from possession of and trade in ivory pieces, trade in diamonds and gold, the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit currencies, pharmaceuticals, and the sale on the black market, of a paraphernalia of drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and other trinkets on the back of protracted and biting international sanctions against the reclusive state for its gross human rights abuses against its own people and flagrant nuclear tests.
These illegal activities, according to a US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, have raked in at least US$500m annually for the Pyongyang regime. Other global studies estimate that North Korea’s illegal earnings from the black market are around $1bn annually, and are being channelled towards the country’s nuclear weapons programme, while ordinary North Koreans continue to die of mass starvation.
In February 2014, Botswana, citing systematic human rights violations, severed ties with North Korea with the former’s president Mokgweetsi Masisi (then vice president) calling North Korea an ‘evil nation’ on 23 September 2016, at a United Nations General Assembly forum in Washington, USA.
Botswana has close to 132,000 elephants, more than any of its four neighbouring countries, namely Angola, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, according to a 2022 Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) Elephant Survey.
The rhino population in Botswana has significantly dwindled, with poaching a leading cause of the decimation of the country’s rhinos. Despite dehorning and relocating its diminishing rhino population from the extensive Okavango Delta to undisclosed sanctuaries, Botswana has since 2018, lost 138 rhinos to poachers.
The sharp spike in rhino poaching in Botswana came after the country’s government made a controversial decision to disarm park rangers in early 2018.
In a statement delivered in November 2022 to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) CoP-19 in Panama, the Botswana government instead blamed the surge in poaching to a shift of foreign-sponsored organised poaching organisations from South Africa to Botswana.
“This increase in rhino poaching in Botswana coincided with a decline of rhino poaching in South Africa from 2018 to 2020, suggesting a displacement of the poaching syndicates from South Africa to Botswana,” the statement reads. “The recent decline in rhino poaching in Botswana (2021 and 2022, relative to 2020) coincides with the increase in rhino poaching in Namibia and South Africa, further suggesting displacement of the poaching syndicates across the sub-region.”
According to the Botswana government, as of 13 November 2022 the country has secreted its shrinking rhinos (only 285 white rhinos and 23 black rhinos) in undisclosed locations within the country’s borders.
South Africa has close to 15,000 rhinos. Between January and June 2022 alone, poachers killed 260 rhinos in South Africa for their horns. The country is home to the majority of Africa’s white rhinos, a species whose existence remains under threat of extinction due to poaching.
The major threat posed by foreign state actors including those from North Korea, to southern Africa’s rhino and elephant population remains grim as the bulk of the rhino horns and elephant tusks reportedly continue finding their way to the Far East, where China is being used as the major distribution centre.
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Saleshando bitter over my UDC affiliation-Khama
Former President Lt Gen Ian Khama has said he is disappointed by the remarks directed to him by Botswana Congress Party (BCP) President Dumelang Saleshando, but he will just wait and see how far he wants to go with his remarks before he decides whether and how his response should be.
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