Botswana’s Constitutional Debate Ignites Fight for Indigenous Governance. By Raymond Enoch
Botswana’s fragile political calm was shattered on 1 December 2025 when opposition lawmakers stormed out of Parliament during heated debate on a landmark constitutional amendment to establish a Constitutional Court. The dramatic walkout, staged in full view of the nation, followed accusations that government was forcing through the Constitution Amendment Bill without proper public consultation, despite expert recommendations for national dialogue.
MPs rose, voiced their objections and exited, leaving rows of empty seats behind. The moment captured a country suspended between protest and progress — a chamber in silence, a political theatre that exposed the cracks in Botswana’s legislative process.
That silence was broken by a statement that immediately changed the tone of debate.
“The people want a Constitutional Court so that their rights are vindicated and protected,” President Advocate Duma Boko declared from the floor, anchoring the confrontation not in parliamentary procedure, but in principle. His message reframed the showdown into a national conversation on rights, law and identity. For Botswana, the issue goes deeper than political posturing — it touches the core of indigenous governance.
Botswana’s Constitution is one of Africa’s most explicit recognitions of tradition. Sections 77 to 79 establish the Ntlo ya Dikgosi (House of Chiefs), a body of paramount chiefs and traditional figures mandated to advise government on national matters. Their existence honours Botswana’s historic governance system rooted in councils of elders, consensus-building, and the kgotla — the communal assembly where all voices are heard.
Yet that advisory role, critics argue, is symbolic rather than substantive. Chiefs are acknowledged, but not empowered.
A Constitutional Court could change that equation.
Supporters say the new court would not only protect individual rights, but spark long-overdue constitutional reflection: Should traditional leaders remain ceremonial figures, or can they become genuine participants in state governance? Through legal challenges and judicial review, the court could highlight gaps in the current system and potentially reinforce, redefine or expand the constitutional role of the Ntlo ya Dikgosi.
“It is time for the Constitution to breathe, to evolve,” one legal analyst told this newspaper. “Traditional institutions should not sit in the shadows of democracy — they should stand in its light.”
Advocates argue that such reform would not be foreign or Western, but authentically African. For generations justice on the continent was built around circles of consensus — from the kgotla in Botswana to the palaver trees of West Africa and the councils of elders in East Africa. Leadership was never about decree, but wisdom, dialogue and communal legitimacy.
“The Constitutional Court is the modern fire circle,” argues Pan-Africanist and diplomatic envoy Ambassador Godfrey Madanhire. “It is a place where rights are restored, where history and law meet, and where institutions reflect who we are rather than who we were told to be.”
Across Africa, courts have demonstrated this balancing role. South Africa’s Constitutional Court has upheld customary law alongside statutory law. Ghana’s Supreme Court has resolved chieftaincy disputes and protected tradition from political interference. Uganda’s Constitutional Court has reaffirmed that liberty cannot be traded or suspended.
For Botswana, the stakes are similar — but more intimate. The chamber walkout revealed mistrust over process, while the President’s statement signposted a national direction.
Between those two moments lies an opportunity.
If created, Botswana’s Constitutional Court could become the bridge between ceremonial recognition and substantive power, helping ensure that indigenous governance is not merely referenced in the Constitution, but reflected in modern democracy.
The fire circle is not extinguished. It has simply moved to a new arena — one with judges, laws and rulings, but still rooted in dialogue, dignity and ancestral wisdom.
And Botswana now stands at the threshold of that fire.
