15 Jan 2025

President Advocate Duma Boko has expressed admiration for the United Kingdom's democratic governance, saying it is deeply rooted in the country’s culture.

President Boko made the remarks during a courtesy call by the visiting United Kingdom Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Africa, Lord Collins of Highbury at the Office of the President yesterday.

He said even without a written constitution, the UK’s institutions were strong.
President Boko stated that the UK's traits and characteristics were what his government would like to practice.

The United Kingdom has strong trade unions and civil society organisations, something that the Government of Botswana also needs to keep in check to help strengthen democracy, President Boko said.

He said Botswana had long-standing relations and collaborations with the United Kingdom and had benefited from the association.

Regarding the country’s development trajectory, the President said Botswana had been a developing country for quite a long time and needed to transform in the shortest period.

“We do not have the laxity of time,” said President Boko.

He explained that in its transformation journey, the government was alive to how government institutions worked and that processes were often elongated.

For his part, Lord Collins said his government and the new Botswana government shared similarities in that they recently assumed governance and both needed to focus on investment and job creation.

Also, he said his government needed to focus on reforms and speed up decision-making processes.

Lord Collins said he spent some time in the civil society, a sector which needed to be strengthened.

He said he looked forward to developing future dialogue on shared values with Botswana. Lord Collins working visit ends today.  ENDS