26 Sep 2018

The Attorney General, Advocate Abraham Keetshabe, has informed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the call for the review of the constitution lay with Batswana and not with the Attorney General’s Chambers.

During an appearance before the PAC on September 26, Advocate Keetshabe explained that the duty of the AG’s Chambers was to advise on policy matters brought to the office, an exercise that he indicated was done to determine whether such policy matters were in consonance with the constitution.

“The need to review the constitution will not come from me but rather from the people of Botswana,” he said, adding further that it was not the responsibility of his office to determine the policy direction of the country.

On what the AG’s Chambers did to address the perceived conflict of interest in situations in which the office had to advise on matters in which it had been part of the team making decisions being challenged, Adv Keetshabe said as lawyers they were competent to take on any matter brought before them hence the office would be able to tackle matters brought to its attention for advise whether or not it had taken part in the decisions in question.

Regarding case disposal, the Attorney General told the PAC that it was necessary to look into the issue of case backlog in the context of the entire judicial system and not just that of the AG’s Chambers.

He noted that currently the entire judicial system was clogged and therefore even if the AG’s Chambers could fast-track the cases they could still stall in the courts for various reasons.

On how many of their lawyers were responsible for the provision of legislative drafting services for the executives as well as for Members of Parliament, Adv Keetshabe said there was a total of 24 members responsible for drafting.

He, however, indicated that they were not divided according to who they were drafting for, but that they handled all legislative drafting work brought to them.

For his part, head of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Mr Steven Tiroyakgosi responded in the negative when asked if there was an exodus of lawyers from the DPP.

Mr Tiroyakgosi explained that in the past six months, less than 10 lawyers had left the prosecutions body.

Regarding the lawyer and case ratio, the director informed the committee that presently their prosecutors were each responsible for 450 cases.

Indicating how seriously under-staffed the unit was, Mr Tiroyakgosi said a workable number was 65 cases per lawyer.

He noted that resources permitting, the DPP would request for 200 more prosecutors.

He, however, stated that the DPP had a vacancy rate of five per cent, translating to only six lawyers out of the 150 in the establishment register.

On relieving police officers from performing prosecutorial duties, the director admitted that such a move was indeed being considered so as to allow the former to focus on their primary duty of consulting investigations.

He, in the same breath, however acknowledged that the move would make the existing challenge of shortage of lawyers more glaring. ENDS