A zoom into Khamas reject judge
News
By Tefo Pheage
Throw the name, Omphemetse Motumise into the air and listen to the names and comments that shall follow, ‘President,Lt Gen Ian Khama,Law Society of Botswana (LSB) and Judicial Service Commission (JSC)’ among many others. This is a man who has unwillingly and pehaps unknowingly thrown the legal fraternity into unprecendented chaos.
What began two weeks ago as only rejection by president Khama to acknowlegde a recommendation by the JSC of one Omphemetse Motumise to the posotion of High Court judge has now turned into an ugly legal brawl.
But who is this Motumise who has brought the legal fraternity to a standstill and cause the President a headache? “I am a 52 year old male citizen of Botswana and a legal practitioner with over 20 years of professional experince,” he said as he introduced himself to the Judicial Service Commision.
Motumise grew up in the village of Lokgwabe and attended his primary school in that small village. As a young focused lad, he has shown leadership characteristics at the genesis of his age and was a class monitor and later a prefect at Gaborone Senior Secondary School where he did his Junior certificate. This was no fluke as he proceeded to the University of Botswana where he continued with his discipline and exhibition of striking qualities. He was an SRC minister of Justice, a position he later cultivated and nursed.
Motumise contends that he is qualified to hold judicial office and meet the requirements of the post as advertised. Following a series of reports on his case much has been said about him and what he may have done or not done to warrant his rejection by the president.He is confident of his credentials though, “the combination of my academic qualifications and my professional experience makes me an ideal and a well rounded candidate for appointment,” he says.
Motumise obtained a Degree of Bachelor of Laws from the University of Botswana in 1989, with Second Class upper division, graduating top of his class. He later proceeded to obtain a Master of Laws Degree from the University of Edinburgh, speacialising in constitutional Law, Legal Theory and Legislation.
A man of honor, Motumise has from 1996 to date been practicing in partnership with Mr. Batlhalefi Moeletsi under the name and style Moeletsi and Motumise Attorneys, a firm that has become known for its enduring stability, competence and integrity.
In case you may be wondering why the president rejected him and pehaps tempted to believe that Motumise may be a troublesome fellow, think again.
“I am a member in good standing of the Law Society of Botswana.I helped establish the society as a member of its Founding Council.Subsequently,I rose to the position of Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the Council respectively.I served the LAW Society greatly,ably articulating its issues and restored respect to the profession,” he says of himself.
Motumise however is no stranger to controversy. During his days at LSB as the chairman, Motumise was very vocal about the now Court of Appeal’s president Ian Kirby and Athaliah Molokomme’s tranfers during former president Festus Mogae’s tenure, labelling the appointments as “shrouded in secrecy”.
Motumise is not a legal dwarf who has been grounded only in Botswana, he has also held position of Treasure of the SADC Lawyers Association,a grouping of Law Societies in the SADC Region.
“I have also been deputy Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commision for ten years,often acting as Chairman of the Commission.This is a fundamental instituion charged with the constitutional mandaste of managing,organising and holding free and fair elections in Botswana,” he says.
Motumise further adds that he has aquired leadership experience and knowledge in the running of organisations, including processes such as planning, organising, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting.
He has served at Botswana Football Assocaition (BFA) as the Charman of Disciplinary Commitee and served in various committees at the local football governing body. Motumise has also produced several lawyers of this country as he has lectured at the University of Botswana for a considerable length of time.
Khama’s lawyer, Parks Tafa expresses trust and confidence in the rejected judge.
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President Mokgweetsi Masisi says the issue of sustainable natural resources management has always been an important part of Botswana’s national development agenda.
Masisi was speaking this week on the occasion of a public lecture at Virginia Polytechnic, under theme, “Merging Conservation, Democracy and Sustainable Development in Botswana.”
Botswana, according to Masisi, holds the view that the environment is fragile and as such, must be managed and given the utmost protection to enable the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“It is necessary that we engage one another in the interchange of ideas, perspectives, visualizations of social futures, and considerations of possible strategies and courses of action for sustainable development,” said Masisi.
On the other hand, dialogue, in the form of rigorous democratic discourse among stakeholders presents another basis for reconfiguring how people act on their environments, with a view to conserving its resources that “we require to meet our socio-economic development needs on a sustainable basis,” Masisi told attendees at the public lecture.
He said government has a keen interest in understanding the epidemiology and ecology of diseases of both domestic and wild animals. “It is our national interest to forestall the dire consequences of animal diseases on our communities livelihoods.”
President Masisi hoped that both Botswana and Virginia could help each other in curbing contagious diseases of wildlife.
“We believe that Virginia Tech can reasonably share their experiences, research insights and advances in veterinary sciences and medicines, to help us build capacity for knowledge creation and improve efforts of managing and containing contagious diseases of wildlife. The ground is fertile for entering into such a mutually beneficial partnership.”
When explaining environmental issues further, Masisi said efforts of conservation and sustainable development might at times be hampered by the emergence and recurrence of diseases when pathogens mutate and take host of more than one species.
“Water pollution also kills aquatic life, such as fish, which is one of humanity’s much deserved sources of food. In this regard, One Health Approach imposes ecological responsibility upon all of us to care for the environment and the bio-diversity therein.”
He said the production and use of animal vaccines is an important space and tool for conservation, particularly to deal with trans-border animal diseases.
“In Botswana, our 43-year-old national premier pharmaceutical institution called Botswana Vaccine Institute has played its role well. Through its successful production of highly efficacious Foot and Mouth vaccines, the country is able to contain this disease as well as supply vaccines to other countries in the sub-region.:
He has however declared that there is need for more help, saying “We need more capacitation to deal with and contain other types of microbial that affect both animals and human health.”

President Mokgweetsi Masisi has expressed a strong worry over elephants killing people in Botswana. When speaking in Virginia this week, Masisi said it is unfortunate that Batswana have paid a price with their own blood through being attacked by elephants.
“Communities also suffer unimaginable economic losses yearly when their crops are eaten by the elephants. In spite of such incidents of human-elephant conflict, our people embrace living together with the animals. They fully understand wildlife conservation and its economic benefits in tourism.”
In 2018, Nthobogang Samokwase’s father was attacked by an elephant when travelling from the fields, where he stayed during the cropping season.
It was reported that the man couldn’t run because of his age. He was found trampled by the elephant and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
In the same year, in Maun, a 57-year-old British woman was attacked by an elephant at Boro and died upon arrival at the hospital. The woman was with her Motswana partner, and were walking dogs in the evening.
Last month, a Durban woman named Carly Marshall survived an elephant attack while on holiday in the bush in Botswana. She was stabbed by one of the elephant’s tucks through the chest and was left with bruises. Marshall also suffered several fractured ribs from the ordeal.
President Masisi Botswana has the largest population of African elephants in the world, totaling more than 130 000. “This has been possible due to progressive conservation policies, partnerships with the communities, and investment in wildlife management programmes.”
In order to benefit further from wildlife, Masisi indicated that government has re-introduced controlled hunting in 2019 after a four-year pause. “The re-introduction of hunting was done in an open, transparent and democratic way, giving the communities an opportunity to air their views. The funds from the sale of hunting quota goes towards community development and elephant conservation.”
He stressed that for conservation to succeed, the local people must be involved and derive benefits from the natural resources within their localities.
“There must be open and transparent consultations which involve all sectors of the society. It is against this backdrop that as a country, we lead the continent on merging conservation, democracy and sustainable development.”
Masisi stated that Botswana is open to collaborative opportunities, “particularly with identifiable partners such as Virginia Tech, in other essential areas such as conservation, and the study of the interplay among the ecology of diseases of wild animals and plants, and their effects on human health and socio-economic development.”

Minister for State President Kabo Morwaeng says government will continue to make resources available in terms of financial allocations and human capital to ensure that Botswana achieves the ideal of eradicating HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Morwaeng was speaking this morning in Gaborone at the High-Level Advocacy event to accelerate HIV Prevention in Botswana. He said the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAPHA), in partnership with UNAIDS, UN agencies, the Global Fund and PEPFAR, have started a process of developing transition readiness plan for sustainability of HIV prevention and treatment programmes.
“It is important for us, as a country that has had a fair share of donor support in the response to an epidemic such as HIV and AIDS, to look beyond the period when the level of assistance would have reduced, or ceased, thus calling for domestic financing for all areas which were on donor support.”
Morwaeng said this is important as the such a plan will guarantee that all the gains accrued from the response with donor support will be sustained until the end when “we reach the elimination of HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 20230,” he said.
“I commit to continue support efforts towards strengthened HIV prevention, accentuating HIV primary prevention and treatment as prevention towards Zero New Infections, Zero Stigma, Discrimination and Zero AIDS related death, to end AIDS in Botswana.”
He reiterated that government commits to tackle legislative, policy and programming challenges that act as barriers to the achievement of the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat.
In the financial year 2022/2023, a total of 119 Civil Society Organizations, including Faith Based Organizations, were contracted with an amount of P100 million to implement HIV and NCDs prevention activities throughout the country, and the money was drawn from the Consolidated Fund.
Through an upcoming HIV Prevention Symposium, technical stakeholders will use outcomes to develop the Botswana HIV Prevention Acceleration Road Map for 2023-2025.
Morwaeng stated that government will support and ensure that Botswana plays its part achieving the road map. He said there is need to put hands on the deck to ensure that Botswana sustains progress made so far in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
“There are tremendous achievements thus far to, reach and surpass the UNAIDS fast track targets of 95%- 95%- 95% by the year 2025. As reflected by the BAIS preliminary results of 2021, we now stand at 95- 98- 98 against the set targets.”
“These achievements challenge us to now shift our gears and strive to know who are the remaining 5% for those aware of their HIV status, 2% of enrolment on treatment by those aware of their status and 2% of viral suppression by those on treatment.”
Explaining this further, Morwaeng said shift in gears should extend to coming up with robust strategies of determining where these remaining people are as well as how they will be reached with the necessary services.
“These are just some of the many variables that are required to ensure that as a country, we are well positioned to reaching the last mile of our country’s response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.”