The Expulsion Order

In so doing, the Resident Commissioner had exercised the delegated authority of the High Commissioner, which allowed for indefinite detention without the requirement to show just cause (the fundamental legal principal of ‘habeas corpus’) of any and all “British Protected Persons” in Bechuanaland (i.e. all non-whites in the territory).

This unbridled power was provided for by the 1907 “Expulsion Order”, an instrument that had been originally been proclaimed to retroactively legitimise the prolonged detention without trial of the Batawana Kgosi Sekgoma Letsholathebe. It was thereafter wielded as a political weapon against numerous Batswana during the colonial era, including Dikgosi such as Gobuamang, Tshekedi Khama, John Nswazwi and Molefi as well as perhaps most famously Seretse Khama.