Dumelang Saleshando

I write this letter on behalf of the opposition collective in Parliament and in my capacity as Leader of the official Opposition.

It has been more than two (2) years since you announced the imminent start of the constitutional review process. Nothing has taken off to date and time is running out.

I have not had the courtesy of any meaningful conversation from you on what the thinking is in Government on how the entire process is going to be carried out, despite we (the opposition) being a major stakeholder in the process and a key partner for a seamless constitutional review process.

You would agree that our claim to being a major stakeholder is not an imaginary thing. The opposition collective was elected by 48 percent of the polling voters in the 2019 elections.

It is critical to emphasise the point that both the BDP and UDC have in their 2019 Manifestos promised the people a comprehensive constitutional review process. The UDC is committed to delivering on its promise and in particular to deliver a constitution that every Motswana feels he owns and can identify with.

We want a legitimate constitution that will have the broad endorsement of the populace. The government of the ruling party should not make the cardinal mistake of thinking that the constitutional review process is its project. It is a project of the people of which the collective opposition just like the ruling party, is a key partner.

It is, therefore, important that before the entire process begins, both sides of the house must meet and exchange notes on the building blocks of the process. The government needs to engage us on many significant issues about and concerning the process and the content.

These aspects relating to process, the subject of this letter, include the budget, the time frame, the members of the commission, the methodology of consulting the people, and how civic education, an important building block of the process would be conducted, and for how long.

We at the UDC, and indeed the broader opposition block, want an honest, fair, and transparent process in which the government or the ruling party is merely a facilitator and not a sole determiner of the process and content. We will not settle for less.

We would insist that the people must have a role in all the stages of the process; participate in formulating the terms of reference; participate in choosing the members of the constitutional review commission and its chairperson.

We are of the view that the above can be done at the initial stakeholders’ conference that must be convened urgently.

This stakeholders conference must involve all interest groups in society; political parties, youth formations, churches, artists, trade unions, Academia, marginalised and vulnerable groups, Dikgosi to mention but a few. A proper mapping exercise of the groups to be invited to the table must be done.

We are also of the view that at the stakeholders’ conference to be convened, serious consideration must be given to developing a set of constitutional principles that can govern the process. These principles can actually be enacted in a piece of legislation that we would ask be passed that would govern the entire process to be named the Constitutional Review Act. The advantage in proceeding in this manner is that should the process not proceed in accordance with what was agreed, any aggrieved person or entity may go to court to enforce the agreement.

On the basis of all the above, I ask you, Mr. President, to commit to a fair, transparent, and people-centred process and to assure my office on when the engagement between both sides of the house can commence as part of building consensus amongst us the politicians that we can hopefully take to the people convened under a stakeholders’ conference to endorse or reject – understanding always that the people in their various formations are free to chart their course – as this is their constitution and not ours.

I sincerely trust that you will apply your mind to the proposals I have made above and commence meaningful engagements with my office on this monumental task that both our political formations are committed to.

Yours faithfully,

Dumelang Saleshando

Leader of Opposition