Minister calls for Parly independence

Sethomo told the Botswana Democartic Party (BDP) dominated Parliament that it is time the August House becomes independent from the Executive. “Similarly, we want to see our governance institutions standing independently. These are the likes of the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS), Auditor General, amongst others of which time and time again, there have been contentions about their operational and administrative independence.

It is time they report directly to Parliament,” he said. He added that the national constitutional review exercise must put these things to rest. Furthermore, he said Botswana is one of Africa’s continuous democracies and it should not be complacent in growing and strengthening the democracy. He said the country has always been a flag bearer and beacon of democracy and therefore he does not think it now wants to play catch-up to newly established democracies that benchmarked from it.