President Advocate Duma Gideon Boko has recently sworn in six new judges of the High Court.
Sworn in this week on the sidelines of the Judicial Conference held in Palapye under the theme: ” Upholding Human Rights through Judicial Reforms and Accountability ” the new judges are Justice Bafi Nlanda, Justice Felicity Setheni Sigweni, Justice Linah Mokibe, Justice Nomsa Moatswi, Justice Oteng Motlhala and Justice Tshekiso Tshekiso.
The judges bring a wealth of experience to the bench, having served in various capacities within the local legal fraternity. The appointments mark ongoing efforts by the new administration to restore the integrity of the judiciary by appointing credible judges. The swearing in at the Judicial Conference was the beginning of an era for these men and women of the jury who will be expected to utilise their experience in fairly adjudicating over matters before them.
Meanwhile, delivering a keynote address at the gathering, President Boko seized the opportunity to reaffirm the government’s commitment to delivering a fully fledged constitutional review as promised to the people of Botswana. But before then, he said there is a need to start with the establishment of a Constitutional Court. ” We thought we should start with a Constitutional Court to have a final layer which will deal with all matters before it through a constitutional lens. Boko said this would help the judiciary begin to refine the national jurisprudence. He said this will help in ” appreciating that judges play a huge role in shaping, engineering society.”
He noted that judges legislate by way of interpreting the law. According to Boko, judges are constructing in their construeing of provisions of legislation. Therefore, he noted that they must be informed by some broad perspective or a jurisprudence scaffolding of some sort.
