Africa-Press – Botswana. There is need to reform the country’s judicial system, says the acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Ms Dimpho Mogami.
Speaking on the sidelines of the ministry’s annual performance retreat in Gaborone recently, Ms Mogami said the judicial system, which predated Botswana’s independence needed to move with times, hence the need to review it.
The review, she said would look into the operations of the courts, Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Attorney General and come up with necessary reforms.
To that end the ministry had roped in an independent consultant and partnered with a University of Botswana research team on the review initiative.
Critically, she said, the review would seek to align the country’s judicial systems to national development priorities. “We need to look at our system and see what we can do to reform it,” said Ms Mogami.
The proposed review would inculcate digitisation in the justice system processes and that would need necessary supporting legal framework, as well as facilitation of organs such as Legal Aid Botswana, DPP and the Attorney General’s Chambers with requisite skills and resources, she said.
Another critical area that the review would seek to address was. that of access to judicial systems by children.
She said, in an effort to move with the times, Botswana’s judicial system had come up with a child friendly courts project, whose aim is to ensure that courts were friendly to children.
To improve this area further, the ministry was working on guidelines, which when implemented, would ensure uniform address to child issues across the country’s judicial system, said Ms Mogami.
Already, the ministry was introducing gender mainstreaming within the justice system and judicial officers were being capacitated, still in efforts to be relevant and up with the times, she said.
Regarding the backlog of cases before the courts, Ms Mogami said there was need to come up with programmes to address issues of concern, and the Administration of Justice was addressing gaps existing in the case management system.
In order to promote access to justice, she said, the ministry last year opened Maun High Court, as well as other magistrates courts throughout the country to bring justice closer to the people. REFORMS MOOTED FOR JUDICIAL SYSTEM-MOGAMI
21 Feb 2023
There is need to reform the country’s judicial system, says the acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Ms Dimpho Mogami.
Speaking on the sidelines of the ministry’s annual performance retreat in Gaborone recently, Ms Mogami said the judicial system, which predated Botswana’s independence needed to move with times, hence the need to review it.
The review, she said would look into the operations of the courts, Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Attorney General and come up with necessary reforms.
To that end the ministry had roped in an independent consultant and partnered with a University of Botswana research team on the review initiative.
Critically, she said, the review would seek to align the country’s judicial systems to national development priorities. “We need to look at our system and see what we can do to reform it,” said Ms Mogami.
The proposed review would inculcate digitisation in the justice system processes and that would need necessary supporting legal framework, as well as facilitation of organs such as Legal Aid Botswana, DPP and the Attorney General’s Chambers with requisite skills and resources, she said.
Another critical area that the review would seek to address was. that of access to judicial systems by children.
She said, in an effort to move with the times, Botswana’s judicial system had come up with a child friendly courts project, whose aim is to ensure that courts were friendly to children.
To improve this area further, the ministry was working on guidelines, which when implemented, would ensure uniform address to child issues across the country’s judicial system, said Ms Mogami.
Already, the ministry was introducing gender mainstreaming within the justice system and judicial officers were being capacitated, still in efforts to be relevant and up with the times, she said.
Regarding the backlog of cases before the courts, Ms Mogami said there was need to come up with programmes to address issues of concern, and the Administration of Justice was addressing gaps existing in the case management system.
In order to promote access to justice, she said, the ministry last year opened Maun High Court, as well as other magistrates courts throughout the country to bring justice closer to the people.
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