Summary:
The piece criticises Botswana's government for maintaining the death penalty. Most other countries in Southern Africa have abolished it, but Botswana remains committed to it. The current President of Botswana is a human rights lawyer who has opposed the death penalty in the past. He has not authorised any executions so far but has not addressed the issue. The piece calls on him to have the political courage to call for abolition of the death penalty. The piece presents the main stumbling block: over 80% of Botswana's citizen favour maintaining the death penalty.
Relevance + Context:
This article deals with the death penalty, which touches on issues of human rights, rule of law and the limits of state power.
President Boko is one of the most interesting leaders on the continent. In his career, he was basically a proper woke left wing human rights activist: he fought for LGBT rights, indigenous rights and against the death penalty. He has had to be a bit more muted on all those issues since winning power. Botswana's economic crisis has no doubt consumed his time – every few weeks he is in a new country trying to raise funding for a diversification investment drive. But at some point he will have to address social, cultural and ethical issues too.
Posted by Top_Lime1820