06 Feb 2022

The ongoing preparations for constitutional review are an opportunity for every Motswana to have a say in how he or she would want tomorrow’s Botswana to be.
And so, it was that various Tlokweng-based groups on Friday seized the opportunity and made submissions to the Presidential Commission of Enquiry on Review of the Constitution.

Long marginalised, the Botswana Association of the Blind and Partially-Sighted (BABPS) argued that time had come for the visually impaired to be mainstreamed into the wider society. They simply were tired of being treated like second-class citizens, they said.

Representing the association, Mr Boago Gosenyang painted a gloomy picture before the commission, explaining how little of the constitution the visually impaired knew owing to non-existence of a Braille version of the document.

“As the blind, we know little about the constitution, and because of this, our participation in the review exercise is going to be limited,” he said.

Mr Gosenyang observed that it was rather disappointing that to date no official documents was written in Braille to empower the visually impaired.

He thus pleaded that the new constitution should have a Braille version, and it be used as a standard for all official documents in Botswana.

Similarly, provision should be made for them in all official settings such as meetings and workshops.

“We want it to be made a law that no government meeting or any business sanctioned by government that includes the blind shall proceed, unless provision has been made for them to follow the proceedings without difficulty. With no Braille version of a programme of proceedings for use by the blind, a meeting should be deemed unlawful and not be allowed to go ahead,” Mr Gosenyang submitted.

Ms Nnyaladzi Nyeku of Nkaikela Youth Group, an HIV and AIDS advocacy outfit, called for the legal recognition of sex work.

Ms Nyeku argued that the legalisation of sex work would yield a lot of good in the sense that it would help address discrimination of sex workers and thereby enhance their access to sexual reproductive health services.

She opined further that legalising sex work would ensure that participants in the trade were protected from abuse and exploitation, which had become the bane of their trade.

“Our stance as an organisation is that sex work must be legalised because it is happening as we speak, and individuals that participate in it need to be protected by the law,” she said.

On a similar note, a representative of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO) Mr Karabo Kesegofetse said the constitution should not only recognise the existence of lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender and inter-sex persons but should also make provision for the protection of their rights as a section of the population.

Mr Kesegofetse added, moreover, that in addition to providing for the setting up of a national human rights council, the objectives of which would include teaching the public about the country’s constitution as well as human rights, the constitution should also enjoin government to automatically domesticate all internationally ratified laws. ENDS