21 Jul 2022

A two-tier structure of Ntlo ya Dikgosi will strengthen the institution and provide a fairer and more inclusive model of bogosi in which merafe will enjoy equal representation. 

Making submissions on behalf of Ntlo ya Dikgosi before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Review of the Constitution on Wednesday, Kgosi Oscar Mosielele of Moshupa region said regional houses would provide dikgosi across the different regions with a platform to deliberate on issues specific to their regions. 

At national house level, he said every single ethnic group would enjoy the right to representation by its own paramount chief. 

Dissecting the functions of the lower house, Kgosi Mosielele said those would include hearing appeals over chieftaincy issues from tribes within dikgosi’s respective regions, compiling customary law and laying out lines of succession in the regions. 

Further, the houses would also advance the aspirations of the leadership at regional level, he added. 

The national house on the one hand would, among its responsibilities, undertake progressive study on bogosi, provide interpretation and codification of customary law to create a unifying bogosi system. 

Kgosi Mosielele said the house would also, ‘adjudicate chieftaincy cases through tribunals and make pronouncements on matters affecting chieftaincy; inquire into, rationalise and document customary law; and eliminate socially harmful or inhumane customs and practices’.

Regarding Section 77 of the Constitution, Ntlo ya Dikgosi seeks to have the membership to the house increased by opening it up to merafe presently not represented. 

In addition, Kgosi Mosielele said bogosi also desired for the Tribal Territories Act to be reviewed to accommodate the other tribes who would have been newly made eligible to membership to Ntlo ya Dikgosi. 

Pertaining to the position of secretary to Ntlo ya Dikgosi, the house proposed that the office ‘be elevated to the level of permanent secretary with clearly defined roles and powers as it is with other constitutionally established positions’.

The other proposals brought before the commission include the call for the amendment of Section 83 of the Constitution to allow Ntlo ya Dikgosi to draft and pass its own rules of procedure independently from the Office of the President, as well as for the executive to be enjoined by law to refer all pieces of legislation to the house for consideration before they were passed by the National Assembly. 

Kgosi Mosielele, who said such a move would strengthen partnership in governance, proposed furthermore that cultural rights should be embedded in the Constitution to bolster issues of cultural identity, heritage as well as ensure the promotion and preservation of cultural values and ethics. 

Acting Ntlo ya Dikgosi chairperson, Kgosi Tshipe Tshipe noted that during the colonial era, dikgosi and the institution of bogosi enjoyed greater autonomy, with the latter also carrying wide-ranging responsibilities; a status quo he said changed when Botswana attained independence in 1966. 

He said the transfer of some of their responsibilities to government departments and ministries at independence weakened the bogosi institution and cast doubt on dikgosi’s relevance in the post-independence society, hence the wide-ranging proposals by Ntlo ya Dikgosi on the ongoing constitutional review exercise. Ends