18 Feb 2025

President Advocate Duma Boko says the government will remove or amend laws that impede progress.

Advocate Boko said during a meet and greet session with Batswana living in Ethiopia following the end of AU Heads of State and Government Summit. He said that his party Umbrella for Democratic Change(UDC) wanted to run an agile government that would effect the necessary changes urgently.

"We want to run an agile government, one that is responsive. We have an obligation to change many things including laws themselves because many of them are outdated," he said.

President Boko said same laws have been the albatross in the neck for progress in the past. For that reason, he implored Batswana to give him the support he needed to effect the changes he envisaged.

Batswana, he said, must desist from outsourcing their civic duties and obligations to politicians. He said politics had degenerated over the years and needed evacuation by sober minded people who wanted to rebuild and bring hope to the hopeless.

Furthermore, President Boko said the UDC-led administration subscribed to open door policy where individual citizens could contribute their ideas and hold to account those entrusted with the stewardship of governance.

He told his audience that he had set himself and the government a timeframe of three years after which Botswana must be spectacularly different.

Also, President Boko thanked Batswana living in Ethiopia and reminded them that they were ambassadors of their country and should as such carry themselves with Botho.

He said it was imperative that they accumulated knowledge and skills that they would deploy back home at the end of their foreign service.

Speaking earlier, Botswana Ambassador to Ethiopia, Mr Tebelelo Boang was elated that President Boko found it fit to shoulder the burden of representing Botswana at the just ended AU summit despite his recent ascent to the presidency following October 30, 2024 polls.

‘’It shows that Botswana as a bonafide member of the AU indeed take multilateralism, which we subscribe to with the seriousness it deserves,’’ he said.

Director of Strategic Planning and Delivery at the African Union, Ms Botho Bayendi when giving vote of thanks, said that by honouring and occupying his space at the just ended AU summit, President Boko had made the nation proud.

“Listening to you was  thrilling  but most importantly people have given positive feedback and fallen in love with your inaugural courageous speech,’’ she said, adding that President Boko came at the time when international relations were at their all-time low.

Ms Bayendi said President Boko should prove critics wrong by remaining laser focused on the mammoth task ahead in order to effect transformation that Batswana needed urgently.

She said on behalf of Batswana living in Ethiopia, they would run with the vision President Boko had put in black and white.

Ms Bayendi also encouraged First Lady, Kaone Boko to be courageous in the execution of her role as the mother of the nation. ENDS