This is a Bill, which seeks to make it legal for law enforcement organs of the state to use undercover operations to make interceptions to telephonic communications, access to computer systems and the use of controlled devices in the process of investigations of money laundering and associated crimes. There are many loud protests from different stakeholders in Botswana’s democracy ranging from the media, academics, human rights civil society groups and ordinary citizens on the likely impact of the Bill on human rights (the right to privacy) and other civil liberties of ordinary people once put into law. There is a common call from those who are skeptical of the Bill that without proper oversight mechanisms the Bill will lead to disastrous violations of the tenets of human rights such as civil liberties and the right to privacy. They lament the fact that these types of violations have no space in a modern democratic state but are synonymous with authoritarian states.
These then brings into sharp focus the importance and role of oversight institutions especially the oversight of the state security agencies. It is important to note that it is a core responsibility of a state to provide national security to citizens especially in this modern era on multiple and complex security threats such as terrorism, cyber-attacks and sophisticated criminal networks. Technological advancements have also made their work more complex, and the transnational nature of today’s threats has made it ever more challenging. If the State fails the responsibility of provision of security to citizens amid these complex threats, then questions of legitimacy of the State arise with a likelihood of destabilisation or possibly violent domestic conflict.
