18 Feb 2019

Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Stephen Tiroyakgosi says the directorate is hamstrung by shortage of personnel to relief Botswana Police from prosecuting cases on its behalf.

Mr Tiroyakgosi said this during the launch of Directorate of Public Prosecutions Code of Conduct for Prosecutors at Tati River Lodge in Francistown last week.

He said although the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP)  concurred with the idea to have police officers do police work and leave prosecution to prosecutors, the status quo would linger on until such a time when the directorate would have enough personnel to fully carry out the task. 

“We need additional 200 prosecutors to fully execute our mandate as prescribed in Section 51 of the constitution of the Republic of Botswana,” he said.

He therefore gave Botswana Police a pat on the back for having come to the aid of the directorate for years spanning well over 50.

Also, Mr Tiroyakgosi dismissed as incorrect, media reports that the directorate was aligning itself to a political formation of some sort. 

“As DPP we are accountable to the constitution or we would have lost the very core of our mission,” he said in dismissing such insinuations.

Turning to the code of conduct for prosecutors, Mr Tiroyakgosi underscored its importance in projecting organisational morals and values and providing the moral campus that helped guide any enterprise through the business environment once incorporated into the organisational vision.

Furthermore, a code of conduct according to the Director is not only limited to turning around business operations, but also helped improve stakeholder relationships.

He said despite powers conferred upon the directorate by section 51 of the constitution, DPP must be guided by a set of rules such as those contained in the code of conduct. 

“We are not the law. 

We are officers of the law and therefore we will not behave like a village bully,” he said.

The code, he stated, would help hold the directorate accountable to the general public and that any inappropriate behavior on the part of the former would not only lead to loss of public trust, confidence and loyalty, but would also expose it (directorate) to litigation.

The chairperson of Law Society of Botswana (LSB), Mr Diba Diba said the establishment of the code of conduct by DPP was a welcome development.

The senior attorney highlighted that by setting out the code, DPP was essentially creating a social contract with its clientele and should therefore brace itself to be challenged and held accountable in the event it deviated from the rules.

The LSB chairperson requested that the document be made available to all stakeholders including members of the public.

He however made a clarion call on the directorate to spare the court time and desist from bringing cases that lack sufficient evidence, a development he said often times put innocent persons in rigmarole court processes unnecessarily. 

Mr Diba also shared Mr Tiroyakgosi sentiments, saying the code of conduct would go a long way in improving efficiency and effectiveness of the directorate.

In her welcome remarks earlier on, Ms Susan Mangori of DPP said the launch of the code of conduct for prosecutors marked yet another milestone by the directorate. She said by establishing the code of conduct, the directorate was committing itself to fulfilling all that it had set to do in the document. 

“It is a commitment by us to say you can hold us to that standard,” she said. ENDS