The panel discussion, a brainchild of The Voice newspaper, will be held under the theme and motion “Is it time for Botswana to review its use of the death penalty?” Since independence in 1966, Botswana has had 70 death penalty executions to date and currently have 12 on death row.
With 33 African states that still practice the death penalty, Botswana remains the only Southern African country that still practices capital punishment. Is it time for our Constitution to re-evaluate the death penalty, The Voice will ask the penallists.
The rich line up of panellists are Dr Ian Stuart Kirby - former president of the CoA, Advocate Sidney Pilane, former president of customary court (Tati town), Margaret Mosojane, Tshiamo Rantao who is the managing partner at Rantao attorneys as well as the lead attorney at Lediretse attorneys Tshepiso Tjedu Lediretse.
The Voice editor-in-chief, Emang Bokhutlo-Mutapati explained in an interview that: “This is our (The Voice’s) way of fostering freedom of expression and free speech. We want to set the agenda for important topical issues that the nation needs to grapple with in order to nurture our precious democracy and a pluralistic society.
Discourse is a good way to dispel ignorance, so we want to create an environment where free thought is encouraged by making robust debates the norm and divergent, acceptable and encouraged because our society is not monolithic but diverse.” The programme dubbed the Big Debate will be hosted by Voice of the People, a Live debate and discussion event organised by The Voice newspaper, Botswana’s feature programme which hosts with the expertise of renowned public figures to create an engaging and informative discussion that the public would want to participate in. In order to bring voice of people closer to the public and create more interactive engagement where important ideas can be unpacked at length, The Voice newspaper has decided to create a live platform, with a live audience made up of relevant stakeholders to the topic under discussion.
The objective is to provide spaces where Batswana can contribute the ideas that drive society forward, where decisionmakers can explain their thought processes, and the rest of society can share their experiences living with those decisions. The show producer, Nick Bonte further added that the death penalty topic has been hot locally and international especially towards Botswana.
“We felt it was time we looked back at the topic, the reason why we chose the speakers is because these are the people who have been at the forefront in the legal, they have dealt with these cases before and they have the insight and experience and that is why we felt they are best for this panelist to deal with the motion,” Mmopele said.
