The Botswana Congress Party (BCP) is preparing to formally engage the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dithapelo Keorapetse, expressing growing concern about the underperformance of parliamentary committees.
This move is expected to reignite discussion about the effectiveness of Botswana’s legislative oversight.
The main opposition party’s concerns focus on the repeated failure of several committees to meet consistently during the past financial year. The BCP argues that these irregularities have severely hampered Parliament’s constitutional role in scrutinizing government activities and holding the Executive accountable.
Dumelang Saleshando, Leader of the Opposition and the party’s representative tasked with raising the matter with the Speaker, emphasized the core issue. “Parliamentary oversight begins at committee level. Most of the committees did not meet regularly during the past financial year. This compromises the ability of Parliament to effectively hold the Executive to account,” Saleshando told The Weekend Post.
The BCP’s intervention comes amid an ongoing debate over the strength of Botswana’s Parliament as an independent oversight body. Concerns about its capacity to check Executive power have persisted for years. During the recent Committee of Supply debates, several Members of Parliament voiced similar worries about the performance of parliamentary structures and the adequacy of resources allocated to the legislature.
For many years, opposition parties and governance observers have argued that Botswana’s Parliament remains institutionally weaker than the Executive. They point to structural and political factors that undermine its independence, including the dominance of the ruling party in parliamentary decision-making, limited administrative capacity, and weak enforcement mechanisms to ensure Executive accountability.
The latest concerns about committee inactivity are expected to intensify existing criticisms regarding the effectiveness of parliamentary oversight in Botswana.