The process is fraudulent- BOFEPUSU
Deputy Secretary General Botswana Federation of Public Private and Parastatal Sector Unions (BOFEPUSU) Ketlhalefile Motshegwa has condemned the ongoing process of constitutional review as undemocratic and fraudulent.
When addressing the media on Wednesday, Motshegwa said that the President, Mokgweetsi Masisi has falsely projected himself as a democrat and a leader who believes in the rule of law but the manner with which he has approached the constitutional review process bears testimony that he is far from what he projected himself to be.
“Before the appointment of the Commissioners of the Commission on constitutional review we had written to the President for a meeting and he ignored us but after appointments were made we wrote to him again for a meeting and still he turned us down or in fact ignored labour movement and civic society as he didn’t even bother to respond,”said Motshegwa.
The Deputy SG said that their position is that the constitutional review should be done in terms of the process provided for by the Constitution itself rather than through a process of Commissions Act.
The appropriate process to have been followed should have been passing of An Act of Parliament to govern the entire process, he noted.
The unionist further said that the labour movement had proposed the Institutional set up; the Constitutional Review Commission, the Constituency Forums, the National Constitutional Conference (Stakeholders Conference), Parliament, the referendum and that there should be terms of reference of constitutional review.
“Government must be sincere and honest and people who participate in constitutional review should be people who are aware of the topic they are asked. There is need for Civic education and consultations, transparency and inclusion, enough time and resources must be allocated to the process and the final product must be approved by the people at a referendum. The referendum as the final adoptive act must be issue based,” he explained.
The final product of the ongoing constitutional review will lack legitimacy, and become a recipe for political crisis for this Country. Motshegwa posited.
“The president alone determined the terms of reference of the commission, he alone appointed the commissioners, and they will report to him, and parliament is sidelined,” he said