26 Jun 2025

Government is willing to dialogue with stakeholders on how Industrial Court could be better situated and structured to enable it to better execute its mandate of a fair arbiter of trade disputes, and to maintain good labour relations.

President Advocate Duma Boko said this at the Office of the President yesterday when swearing in Ms Sampa Kaisara as a judge of the Industrial Court. He said there had been suggestions from some quarters of the judicial system regarding the location of the Industrial Court, and government was willing to engage on that.

“Some have suggested that the Industrial Court needs to be located at the High Court as a Labour Division, and this would bring it under the ambit of the Administration of Justice. We hope to engage in discourse with stakeholders, including judges of the Industrial Court on such a direction,” President Boko said.

He said some of the structural changes in such a move could entail bringing some of the informality and equity pursued at the Industrial Court to mitigate what he termed “harsh rules of procedure” of the High Court. Welcoming Ms Kaisara to her new appointment, President Boko pointed out that the Industrial Court pursued equity and had rules that were less rigid than other courts, permitting those before the court the liberty to be self-acting or find other representatives that were not attorneys.

“This is to facilitate justice for all, since this is a space often characterised by conflict over issues that affect people’s lives and livelihoods, and as you enter this space you will appreciate the circumstances,” the President said.

Ms Kaisara is a judicial officer who brings into her new post a wealth of experience in the legal fraternity, plus qualifications that include a law degree (LLB) from the University of Botswana as well as a masters of law (LLM) degree in International Business and Commercial Law from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.

She has just over 30 years experience in public service, with speciality in land law, having first joined the then Lands Division of the Attorney General’s Chambers in 1994, and rose through the ranks to being appointed Chief State Counsel in 1995. In 2008, Ms Kaisara joined the Land Tribunal as President, and was later appointed the first Chief Land Tribunal in 2017, a position she held until her new appointment. ENDS