19 Aug 2021

Parliament has acceded to the amendment of the Motor Vehicle Accident Fund Amendment (MVAF) Act of 2007.

The amended Act aims at ensuring sustainability of the fund to provide compensation, care, benefits, medical management and rehabilitation of victims of motor vehicle accidents.

The Act also provides for improved administrative processes within the fund through easy of application of the law.

The new law is also intended to, among others, enable the MVAF to provide necessary cover for victims of accidents caused by foreign registered vehicles transiting through Botswana by requiring third party insurance cover.

In addition, it limits medical and rehabilitative compensation to the first six months from the date of the accident or up to a prescribed time, whichever occurs first for negligent parties, irrespective of their contribution to the accident.

On the other hand, the fund will not be held liable in vehicle accidents arising from natural disasters hence no claims will be issued to avoid occurrences that may lead to depletion of funds.

However, under this new dispensation, it would be possible for the fund to recover fully the amount it has paid or liable to pay as compensation to claimants from the person who caused the accident.

Meanwhile, Parliament has also passed the Tobacco Control Bill of 2021, thus repealing and re-enacting, with amendments, the Tobacco Control Act to come up with a more comprehensive legislation that is aligned to the articles of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that Botswana signed and ratified in 2003 and 2005, respectively.

The new Act, therefore, prohibits smoking in public places to protect non-smokers from exposure to tobacco smoke. It also ensures compliance besides forbidding tobacco advertising, sponsoring and promotion.

Other provisions of the Act prohibit hiring of persons under the age of 21 years to sell tobacco products and also bans deceptive and misleading information on packages such as ’ mild’ , ‘light’ and ultra among other things.

Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Edwin Dikoloti recently stated that amendment of the Act was meant to address issues of point-of-sale advertising and cross border advertising.

Dr Dikoloti also said there minimal compliance to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO, FCTC) Article 5 on reinforcement on the National Focal Point for Tobacco Control.

Mostly importantly, he said the new law was intended to control smoking of tobacco, and not necessarily to ban smoking. Nonetheless, he stated that smoking in Botswana posed a serious health hazard because street vendors located near schools sold tobacco indiscriminately to young people, with some kiosks peddling cigarette candies. ENDS