20 May 2018

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security, Ms Segakweng Tsiane says some of the laws that were ammended in the last Parliament seating were a response to public outcry, especially those dealing with cybercrime.

Addressing members of Ntlo Ya Dikgosi at the ongoing session on May 17, Ms Tsiane said Parliament passed three important bills, which included Cybercrime and Computer related Crimes Bill, Penal Code Amendment and Arms and Ammunitions Bill, which had proved to be thorny issues in the country.   

She noted that Botswana, like other countries, was under siege from cybercrime related offenses, which could not be left unchecked because the country forms part of the global village, hence it could lose economically if it did not make any substantial efforts to fight the rot.

Ms Tsiane noted that cybercrime had over the years come with new dimensions and forms, which should not only be countered with laws, but with any other possible means to cleanse the society the crime, which have the potential to destabilise world peace and economic growth.

Ms Tsiane noted that in an effort to curb this technology crime, the new law had upped penalties from P10 000 to P20 000, maximum being P100 000.    

With regard to Penal Code crimes, Ms Tsiane said the age of sexual consent among girls had been raised from 16 to 18 years to be in conformity with the world standard because it had come to the realisation that children under the age of 18 could never consent to sex, more so that they were still schooling.

She however told dikgosi that where it was discovered that two underage teenagers who may have engaged in sexual activity could be pardoned by magistrate court under the Rule of Romeo and Juliet as they may have been of the youth experimental session, without any harm intended.

In addition, they were informed that it was now an offense to be found in possession of human flesh.

The law also outlaws cannibalism.

With regard to arms and ammunition, she said no other fire arm in Botswana was allowed except rifles and shotguns obtained through police supervised raffle and thorough assessment of the candidate.

In the meantime, she said government would soon embark on registering all shotguns and rifles in the country to know who possessed what and under what condition.

She further advised dikgosi to ensure safe keeping of the fire arms so that they did not fall into wrong hands.

When commenting, dikgosi noted that the three laws came at a time when most citizens had lost their personalities and a sense of brotherhood, where people were not afraid to post inappropriate picture of other people on social platform.

They therefore hailed the amendments as a step in the right direction, but called for other laws such as the right to bail to be scrutinised. ENDS