While other African countries abandoned democratic constitutions written to them by their former colonial masters in favour of undemocratic alternatives such as one party states, military dictatorships and kleptocracies etcetera, Botswana held multiparty elections every five years. However, the accolades accorded to Botswana were more or less a case of “one eyed man being king in the world of the blind” because its democracy wasn’t subjected to more profound yardsticks of democracy. Not much scrutiny was put on issues of separation of powers and the rule of law. Now it is common knowledge that Botswana has been surpassed by other new entrants into the system of democracy, notably South Africa and Namibia in the region. What people are witnessing now in our judiciary is not surprising and is not new. These bad laws empowering the anti-democracy forces to do as they please with our courts have always been there since independence.
Make no mistake about it, this is an all out war for survival by the soft autocratic regime. The suspension of justices of the High Court is a tip of the ugly big anti-democracy iceberg. None of this makes sense at all. Why did the Chief Justice report an administrative matter to the police? Year in year out the accounting officers including Registrars and Masters of the High Court and the Industrial Court, the Accountant General, the Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee among others deal with administrative issues of overpayments and underpayments. The police are never involved in these matters. So what is rally going on here? Twelve justices wrote a petition about the uncalled for posture of the Chief Justice, why then single out four justices out of 12 for suspension and leave the other eight out? Divide and rule?
