06 Mar 2025

Government has made commitment to promote human rights at every level.

Updating Parliament recently, assistant Minister for State President Ms Maipelo Mophuting said Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) manifesto at Pillar 2; Democracy, Governance and Security sets out objective for government to re-write the constitution where all Batswana would publicly engage.

She said under the same pillar, UDC commits to a fully democratic constitution that empowered all citizens and those who live in Botswana regardless of gender, ethnic origin, age and other traditional sources of inequality and disempowerment.

Assistant Minister Mophuting said such demonstrated that tribal inequalities would not have any place in the new constitution; therefore, sections 77, 78 and 79 of the constitution that perpetuated tribal inequalities would not be part of the new constitution.

“We all aspire to have a better home grown and comprehensive constitution that guarantees all citizens equality before the law, removing all discriminatory provisions in favour of more inclusive provisions,” she added.

About the repeal of the Tribal Territories Act, the assistant minister said UDC manifesto was committed to review, amend or repeal all the laws in the statute book that served to perpetuate inequalities amongst Batswana including the Tribal Territories Act.

In addition, she said government was in the middle of preparing for the monumental task of crafting a home grown constitution and would at the right time engage with parliament.

Ms Mophuting was answering a question from Member of Parliament for Tswapong South, Dr Kesitegile Gobotswang, who wanted an update on how government intended to address ethnic inequalities to ensure cultural identity and unity in context to human rights driven vision.

He also asked the minister on any plans to scrap section 77, 78, and 79 from Botswana constitution and any plan to repeal the Tribal Territories Act. ENDS