As a premier tertiary institution in Botswana, the UB bears a significant national responsibility to contribute to the discussion pertaining to the review of the Constitution of Botswana.
The need to take part in this exercise also derives from the university’s vision to be a leading centre of academic excellence in Africa and the world, as well as its mission to improve economic and social conditions for Batswana while advancing itself as a distinctively African university with a regional and international outlook.
Therefore, this makes the University of Botswana’s participation in the constitutional review exercise more imperative. It is in this context that the Department of Law is hosting this colloquium whose outcome will be the submission of a position paper on the University of Botswana’s contribution to the constitutional review process.
The colloquium will entail the presentation of synopses and will be held in a conversational style. Areas or issues of the Constitution that will be interrogated by such synopses include the constitutional making process, fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, citizenship, the Executive, Parliament as well as Ntlo Ya Dikgosi.
Discussions will further centre around issues pertaining to councils and local governance, the Judiciary, institutions supporting democracy, the electoral process, the constitutional amendment process, the public service, and finance.
In participating in the constitutional review exercise, the University of Botswana notes that constitutional reviews are not unique to Botswana. Such reviews are undertaken to make the Constitution the supreme law of the country to keep pace with constitutional developments that were not anticipated at the time of adoption.
This is because every society is in a state of flux hence its laws must, therefore, adapt themselves to meet the exigencies of the ever-changing developmental imperatives of society. Consequently, as a premier tertiary institution in Botswana, the University of Botswana bears a significant national responsibility to contribute to the discussion pertaining to the review of the Constitution of Botswana.
*THOMAS T. NKHOMA is the acting manager – Media and Communications Department of Public Affairs, University of Botswana.
