In his address at the opening of the January 2017 CoA session, Kirby said during 2016, as in previous years, there has been some commentary in the press about “executive-mindedness” in the Judiciary, and particularly in CoA. “First, there is the separation of powers – much of the debate on this subject has arisen from comparisons with South Africa and the United States of America, whose constitutional dispensations are very different from our own. We may learn from them in some respects, but in others we prefer not to do so,” Kirby said.
In Botswana there is no real separation between the executive and the legislature, he said. The public service is led by the President and his Cabinet Ministers, who are all full members of Parliament. Together with the other members of the House, they conceive and pass all the laws, which the Judiciary implements and interprets in the performance of their mandate. “The true separation is between those two putative branches of government, who are effectively one, and the Judiciary which must remain independent and free of political influence, whichever party is in power.”
