Dear Mr President
Correspondent | Monday May 16, 2016 11:25
1. Mr President, we write this letter to you as patriotic citizens, attorneys and men of Botswana who are concerned about the plight of our children, particularly the girl child.
2. Currently, all our media is awash with stories of the sexual abuse and exploitation of the girl child particularly at primary, junior and senior secondary levels. In her letter of 11 May 2016 the Honourable Minister of Education, Dr Unity Dow, shows that a total of 407 students and pupils dropped out of school since April 2015 due to pregnancy. Of these, 16 are from primary school, 126 from junior secondary schools and 265 from senior secondary schools. She says, in her letter addressed to Councillor Kemmonye Amon “and others” “…these are numbers, cold figures, but behind these figures are real girls whose futures have been altered by your actions”. We cannot agree more.
3. In these allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation of the girl child are included names of political leaders in our society.
4. It would now appear that these revelations, including the statistics from Dr Unity Dow, mean that these crimes against the girl child have reached a crisis level. Mr President, these problems have to be addressed as a national crisis. Your Excellency has the powers to protect the girl by instituting a commission of inquiry as has been done by your predecessors when this country was faced with crises which were arguably less disheartening than this.
5. The Commissions of Inquiry Act makes provision for the appointment of Commissions of Inquiry with special powers; to provide for such inquiries and matters incidental thereto. Section 2 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act provides that:
“It shall be lawful for the President, whenever he deems it advisable, to issue a commission appointing one or more commissioners, and authorizing such commissioners , or any quorum of them therein mentioned, to inquire into the conduct of any officer in the public service of Botswana, the conduct or management of any department of the public service, or of any public or local institution or into any matter in which an inquiry would, in the opinion of the President, be for the public welfare.”
6. Your Excellency, there can be no doubt that it is in the interest of the public that you appoint a Commission of Inquiry to investigate instances of sexual abuse and exploitation of the girl child, which instances, as your own government has just shown with statistics, have reached mammoth and unacceptable proportions. Your predecessors have in the past appointed Commissions of Inquiry when the need arose. President Sir Ketumile Masire appointed the so-called Kgabo Commission on 12 July 1991 to investigate the land crisis in Mogoditshane and other peri-urban areas. President Festus Mogae appointed the Lesetedi Commission to investigate State Land allocations in Gaborone. It was chaired by the Honourable Justice Isaac Lesetedi.
7. Mr President, in the exercise of your powers under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, we pray that you appoint the Commission, to be chaired by a sitting judge or a retired judge, to investigate these violations of the rights of the girl child. The situation has reached the levels where it cannot just be left in the hands of the police alone. The police lack the special powers given to the Commissioners under the Commissions of Inquiry Act. In any event, the report by the Commission could help the police to prosecute offenders under section 25 of the Children’s Act which criminalises sexual abuse and exploitation of children, defilement provisions in the Penal Code, and other relevant pieces of legislation.
8. Through its terms of reference the Commission could also assist in formulating recommendations on law reform, strategies to assist law enforcement agencies and the effective implementation of the provisions of the Children's Act and similar legislative enactments involving children. It would also assist in addressing the root causes of such abuses and coming up with measures to help curtail such abuses.
9. The plight of our children needs all this country's citizens to stand and be counted as we seek to protect and nurture the future of this country. Mr President, come to the nation’s aid. Act now.
Tshiamo Rantao (Mr.)
Osego Garebamono (Mr.)
Mboki Chilisa (Mr.)
Kgalalelo Monthe (Mr.)
Kgosi Ngakaagae (Mr.)
Busang Manewe (Mr.)
Diba wa Diba (Mr.)
Lore Morapedi (Mr.)
Rueben Lekorwe (Mr.)
Tefo Gaongalelwe (Mr.)