25 Sep 2018

Gaborone City councillors have adopted a motion calling on Parliament to introduce second and third generation rights into the Constitution of Botswana.

Tabling the motion recently, Marulamantsi Ward Councillor Sergeant Kgosietsile said the national constitution must go beyond civil and political rights.

He said the time for a new people’s social contract, a constitution guaranteeing socio-economic human rights now commonly known as second generation human rights, had arrived.

Councillor Kgosietsile said the struggle for social justice demanded a new constitution  that guaranteed people the right to work, the right to social security, the right to shelter and housing, the right to food, the right to health care and equitable and inclusive access to natural resources.

The Marulamantsi councillor fondly known as Yellowman,  currently government catered for all the rights through charity as there was nothing binding or legally committing it.

Coucillor Kgosietsile, whose motion received overwhelming support from the house, cited the South African Constitution as progressive because it had enshrined some second-generation rights such as the right to have access to adequate housing.

Calling for the inclusion of second and third generation human rights in the constitution, he said the move was necessary for better socio-economic and political development of the people of Botswana.

He explained that the rights included the right to a healthy environment, the right to social and economic development and the right to natural resources.

Another motion adopted by council was that tabled by Councillor Obusitse Montwedi who called on the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to formulate a policy to ensure that all primary schools were provided with air conditioners.    

Councillor Montwedi said pupils were exposed to intolerable heat and cold conditions in the classrooms.

He argued that the move would see a steady rise in pupils’ performance as there would be no or less absenteeism especially in the lower classes where learners were in most cases usually affected by cold weather. ENDS