The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) government has set 100 days to make significant changes in the country and as the first 100 days come to an end this Sunday, the verdict will be out.
For the Judiciary significant change has been made with the ushering in of the new Chief Justice and there have been hints that a new constitutional court is about to be set up. At the start of the year during the burial of a Mosarwa tribesman, Pitseng Gaoberekwe, President Duma Boko took a swipe at the Judiciary in not so much words saying” It is rotten to the core” and there is a need to be change.
During those utterances directed especially to the judges, many anticipated that in the coming days, there would be an evident shake-up.
The Judiciary in the new government has been the busiest. The Court of Appeal was recently stunned when its authority was challenged for altering a High Court decision that gave disgraced former Permanent Secretary to the President, Carter Morupisi. a suspended sentence.
The Apex as the highest court in the land was tasked with hearing an appeal by Morupisi after his conviction for corruption and money laundering.
The court had then decided to enhance his sentence from a non-custodial one to a seven-year jail term.
The decision indeed awakened what seemed like the undermining of the Apex Court as the decision was reversed by the High Court.
The Apex Court for a long time has been known for its decisions to be final and to have its authority challenged was something that caused debates across the nation with many raising the issue of the hierarchy of the judiciary as critical.
The shake-up was not what was anticipated and with Morupisi’s case still pending before the same court, eyes are set on what position the court will take to assert its authority.
The questioning of the Apex Court’s authority and hierarchy was not the only shakeup the Judiciary experienced in the first 100 days of the new government. There is also a new sheriff in town or as rightfully put by the President, a High Priest is leading the Judiciary.
At the end of January, the President announced the resignation of Terrence Rannowane as the Chief Justice and appointed the then judge of the High Court, Gaolapelwe Ketlogetswe.
Justice Ketlogetswe ascended to the chair of the CJ at the time when the Judiciary was thrown into turmoil, with issues of executive interference, tribalism and forum shopping at their peak during the ruling of Botswana Democratic Party.
The former CJ was always at the centre of controversy including once being accused by the new CJ of interference and was then reported to the former President Mokgweetsi Masisi.
This smeared the name of the Judiciary publicly with many calling for the resignation of Rannowane and though now he is said to have resigned due to medical grounds, it remains a speculation that he was pushed as the winds of change are beginning to sweep through the country.
Not only did the nation experience a change of the CJ, but there are hints that a constitutional court is in the offering.
Most constitutional matters have been going through the normal court of the High Court and CoA with an assigned bench and of late an issue arose with regards to Morupisi’s case.
After being sent to jail by CoA, he challenged the decision on grounds of the Constitution as he felt some parts of the court violated some section in the Constitution and explained that was the reason why he took the matter to the High Court.
The High Court also agreed with him and gave him the redress he sought.
With the hierarchy issue having been challenged, this could be one of the reasons that the President may be thinking of a constitutional court.
The President is a human rights lawyer and he has spoken on numerous times that their government will be the one that uplifts and respects the rights of people as evidenced by the burial of Gaoberekwe after a standoff between his family and the previous government.
Boko announced that his government would work for the people and respect their rights, one of the reasons that could have informed his supposed view to set a constitutional court.
The nation will be waiting as the new government moves away from the first 100 days in office.
