26 May 2022

Tribal inequality has had its own positives, which Batswana need to acknowledge. 

Kgosi Barontshi Kegapetswe of Letlhakane said this Wednesday when welcoming the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Review of the Constitution to his village on Wednesday. 

He attributed the peace enjoyed by Botswana to tribal inequality, and said the ‘hierarchy’ of tribes in respective districts had guaranteed some level of order in the manner in which Batswana conducted their affairs. 

Kgosi Kegapetswe observed that had it been adopted, tribal equality would have bred a state of anarchy where no tribe had regard for the other. 

He suggested that before acceding to calls to make tribes equal before the law, the possible repercussions of such a move should be closely scrutinised against the results hoped for. 

“Le fa tota Batswana ba gololesegile go ntsha maikutlo a bone, a lekoko le tsepame mo go kelekeng mabaka gore a mme kwa bofelong a tlaa re berekela; gore fa go ka seke ga nna le mongwe yo o ka kgalemang, lentswe la gagwe la utlwala a mme go tlaa re isa gope?,” he said, meaning that the tribal hierarchy was necessary for order. 

He said in the event that a resolution was reached to tamper with the provisions of the law on tribal recognition and equality, the position should be to amend them as would be necessary and not to repeal them. 

“Gongwe tsetlana e e baakangwe e tsenngwe fela tse di tlhokegang, mme yone e nne e le teng ka gore gongwe kwa bofelong re ka felela re sena mokgalemi e le gore jaanong mongwe le mongwe o tlaa bo a re, ‘Nnyaa re lekalekana fela, ga o kake wa nkgalemela’”, he said. 

On a different matter, Kgosi Kegapetswe asked for the law to provide for the counselling of victims of crime whenever plans were being made to release from custody the people who had committed crimes against them. 

He said that would not only prepare the victims psychologically, but would also prevent crimes of retribution against the ex-convict by the victims or their loved ones in the belief that the law had failed them. 

Mr Bautlwamang Segwabe of Khwee queried the composition of the commission, and pointed out that the outcome of the review exercise would give rise to dissent with some people feeling that their voice had been shut out.

 Mr Segwabe said the citizenry should have been allowed to play a role in the selection of commissioners, with tribes for instance each selecting two representatives to serve in the commission. 

“Pairs of people should have been picked from each tribe to ensure inclusivity and an all-encompassing representation. That way no one would later accuse the President of having left him out of the constitution,” he said, adding how such a representation would even shield the president from accusations of having sidelined some tribes from possible inclusion in the constitution. 

Mr Onkemetse Modori called for the constitution to be gender-sensitive and to be balanced in respect of holders of the offices of president and vice president. 

Mr Modori proposed that the law should bar the bearers of the two offices from being people of the same gender at any given time.

On an unrelated point, he appealed for the law to make specific provision for the handling of cases of ritual killings. 

He said with Batswana continuing to lose their loved ones to such acts, it was imperative for the law to be deliberate in addressing this societal ill. 

Alleging that statistics pointed to the bulk of prison inmates as having been condemned to custodial sentences by customary courts, one Mr Ray Salutu proposed that the law should be amended to allow for legal representation at the said courts. 

He said the rates at which customary courts were sending people to prison was indicative of both a faulty application of the law as well as subjectivity, and dikgosi’s over-bearance. BOPA