DPP to take over prosecutorial function
Pini Bothoko | Monday March 11, 2024 06:00
He stated that the objective of the project is to relieve the Botswana Police Service (BPS) of the responsibility of prosecuting for them to focus on their core mandate, which is to detect and prevent crime.
He said in any event, the prosecution of criminal cases is the constitutional mandate of the DPP and it is proper that each institution deals with what it was established to do. He stated that the exercise was initially commenced in 2005 but was deferred as at the time it realised intermittent results due to the inadequacy of resources. Shamukuni further said the exercise was resuscitated in April 2022 and is expected to be completed in 2025, resources permitting.
“The project is not without challenges and some of the greatest impediments are, an increase in the workload without a corresponding increase in manpower, an acute shortage of resources such as vehicles, the absence of the DPP footprint in strategic areas with the DPP only having offices in Gaborone, Lobatse, Francistown, Maun, Selebi-Phikwe, Palapye, Kasane and Tsabong,” he said.
Additionally, he said other challenges are acute shortage of skilled manpower, which is compounded by the continued loss of seasoned prosecutors, costs associated with the long distances that prosecutors have to travel between the places where the DPP has offices and areas where courts are situated, which places a heavy burden on the budget. He explained that to ameliorate some of the challenges, the DPP contemplates opening additional satellite offices in other areas such as Gantsi and Shakawe. He further stated that realisation of the mandate of the AGC and DPP is dependent upon a conducive working environment for the workforce.
The minister further alluded that the conditions of service for the lawyers need to be enhanced in order to attract, incentivise and retain experienced lawyers. “Efforts are being put in place to address these challenges in order to achieve parity in the area of remuneration across the public service, such as responsibility allowance and commuted overtime allowance,” he said. The police have over the years expressed concern over the performance of non-core duties that hinders the police from performing their core functions something that has also been affecting their human resource.
They (the police) once raised concern that the police spend most of their time using the service’s resources in some duties not within their core mandate, something which has been impacting negatively on their human resources. “As the police we spend most of our time using our resources in some duties not within our core mandate, something that is impacting negatively on our human resources. Such duties are not budgeted for us when funds are allocated. Currently the police are forced to investigate and prosecute cases thus hindering them from performing their core duties,” former Police Commissioner, Keabetswe Makgophe once said. Meanwhile, Shamukani announced that 31 Bills were tabled in Parliament and enacted into law during the 2023 meetings of the House. He also announced that the law reform unit within the legislative drafting division of the AGC will be assisted, through collaboration with UNDP as one of the key international development partners, in funding with the British High Commission. “This exciting initiative is meant to commence in April 2024, with the main priority and focus being on the implementation of the Law Reform Strategy. The International and Commercial Division continues to provide legal services to government ministries and departments in the areas of commercial and international law,” he said.
He stated that this entails the negotiation and drafting of commercial, bilateral and multilateral agreements as well as the provision of legal advice on national and strategic projects. He further revealed that efforts are underway to review the AGC secondment initiative through which legal officers are placed at all ministries to provide on-the-spot legal services. “The intention is to strengthen the human resource capacity at the ministries in order to improve coordination and thereby expedite the execution of all legal matters. This is one of the many efforts by which AGC intends to reduce litigation and its attendant costs across ministries,” Shamukuni said.
He disclosed that the civil litigation division has recently carried out an audit of the number of cases that it handles for and against government. Shamukuni said as at December 2023, there were over 5, 000 files ,32 lawyers working for the Division in Gaborone, Francistown and Maun, with only a few complex cases outsourced to the private lawyers.
“I must hasten to say that 32 is way too low a number to effectively deal with the workload of cases. There is therefore an urgent need to adequate capacitates, both in number and training, the civil litigation arm of the AG,” he said. Shamukuni said in his Committee of Supply presentation last year he alluded to the existence of a satellite office of the civil litigation division in Maun to deal with civil cases in the North-West region of Botswana, particularly those registered at the High Court. “In terms of the structure, the office is to be headed at the level of Chief State Counsel. I am pleased to announce that we have recently appointed a Chief State Counsel and arrangements are at an advanced stage to facilitate the officer taking up this role in Maun,” he said.