Botswana pins economic hopes on new commercial court
Larona Makhaiza | Thursday April 30, 2026 16:36
The court, which was recently launched, will initially operate in the Gaborone and Lobatse divisions of the High Court. It was necessitated by concerns over delays in resolving commercial cases, with some taking decades to conclude.
When launching the court, Chief Justice Gaolapelwe Ketlogetswe said the mood is part of the Administration of Justice (AoJ) broader reform agenda to improve efficiency and strengthen public confidence in the judicial system.
“Our dream was to have an efficient court that would dispose of cases timeously and expeditiously, in the process boosting investor confidence in the judicial system in Botswana and in extension fostering the flow of businesses in the country,” he said. The establishment of the court follows a feasibility study commissioned through a partnership between the Ministry of Trade, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and AoJ.
According to the report, Botswana was ranked 81st out of 190 economies in the World Bank’s 2020 Doing Business report on the efficiency of resolving commercial disputes.
CJ said the current arrangement, where commercial matters are scattered across various case categories in civil courts, has worsened delays, hence the need for the specialized court. “Legal reforms aimed at the expeditious disposal of these cases are imperative,” he said.
The new court will now take over 5 000 civil cases in Gaborone and Lobatse, while procurement-related miscellaneous applications and appeals from the Public Procurement Tribunal will also be transferred. Judge President Barnabas Nyamadzabo will lead 12 judges in the specialized court.