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inBUSINESS Issue 12

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court found that customary law offended<br />

against Section 3 of the Constitution of<br />

Botswana on equal protection of the law.<br />

In the watershed case that was celebrated<br />

internationally, customary law was tossed<br />

aside for discriminating against women<br />

purely on the basis of their sex by singling<br />

out the lastborn son “as instestate heir to the<br />

exclusion of his siblings”.<br />

But if women are regarded as the soft<br />

underbelly of society that needs to be<br />

protected, children and the youth are<br />

much more vulnerable. For that reason,<br />

Kewagamang was both professionally and<br />

personally involved when it emerged in<br />

May last year that a local councillor had<br />

impregnated a teenager in Sebina. She<br />

took “the biggest risk of my life” when she<br />

and others mounted the #IshallNotForget<br />

campaign in an effort to protect children<br />

against sexual marauders. Several of them<br />

were detained - though briefly - as they stood<br />

with protest placards at key intersections<br />

around Gaborone, but Kewagamang<br />

believes their point was made.<br />

The firm is at the forefront of labour<br />

issues in a country where organised labour<br />

is viewed with circumspection – even<br />

distaste – and this could have repercussions.<br />

Kewagamang is aware of the possibility of<br />

such an outcome but is unfazed because<br />

the firm receives a fair share of government<br />

business, especially consultancies. “Up to<br />

30% of our consultancy work has come<br />

from the government,” she says. “But we get<br />

very little litigation work outsourced by the<br />

government.<br />

“Labour is an area that has evolved to<br />

become a key aspect of the firm’s culture. We<br />

are keenly aware that when there is bound<br />

to be collision when you advance rights.<br />

Nevertheless, rights have to be advanced<br />

and we are happy that labour rights are<br />

becoming entrenched in our country. And<br />

this is happening in an environment that has<br />

little support in terms of the protest culture<br />

that we see in neighbouring countries. It<br />

has been a difficult learning curve on both<br />

sides, but the future looks quite good for<br />

organised labour.”<br />

Kewagamang says the firm is unshakable<br />

in its human rights orientation. A deliberate<br />

decision not to handle hard core criminal<br />

cases so as to better play an upright role in<br />

society was made early on. “Only 5% of our<br />

work load entails criminal cases, and even<br />

so nothing of the smoking gun stuff,” she<br />

explains. “It is mostly traffic offences.<br />

This dovetails well into her background<br />

in pro bono work at UB Legal Clinic, as<br />

well as her involvement with Somarelang<br />

Tikologo where she is a board member and<br />

at Ntebogang Junior Secondary School in<br />

Kanye where the firm encourages good<br />

grades by means of prizes. Because of her<br />

zest for progressive work, this woman is a<br />

part of Trust Law Connect that helps NGOs<br />

access lawyers internationally.<br />

So far an exception to the rule on giving<br />

a wide berth to criminal cases has been<br />

the forbidding matter of John Kalafatis, a<br />

young man of Greek extraction who was<br />

gunned down gangland style one May<br />

night in Gaborone in 2009. Kewagamang<br />

describes that episode as “the lowest point<br />

in Botswana’s democracy” and one that<br />

prompted Batswana, an otherwise passive<br />

lot, to express their outrage and take a stand<br />

on the side of due process and the rule of law.<br />

“We have systems for a reason,” she notes.<br />

“While some people say Kalafatis was a<br />

criminal, we don’t know that because he was<br />

charged and tried. It becomes something<br />

else when anyone is killed by an organ of the<br />

government.’’<br />

Soldiers Goitsemang Sechele, Ronny<br />

Matako and Boitshiko Maifala were<br />

ultimately convicted of the murder of<br />

Kalafatis in June 2011. However, they<br />

received a Presidential Pardon and<br />

were eventually reinstated, prompting<br />

protestation from Ditshwanelo and<br />

nationwide dismay. Kewagamang is among<br />

lawyers who got involved at various stages<br />

of the case.<br />

At another level, Kewagamang is<br />

concerned that persistent allegations<br />

about the executive arm of government<br />

intermeddling in the judiciary will erode<br />

confidence in the country’s judicial system.<br />

More importantly, she holds that public<br />

interviews of candidates before judges were<br />

appointed would enhance such confidence.<br />

“We do not even<br />

know the procedure<br />

of appointing judges<br />

of the Court of<br />

Appeal.”<br />

But what does the feminist think of<br />

the male – female divide as crystallised<br />

by the treat to kill law? “A lot of men do<br />

not know how to deal with a<br />

strong woman,” she avers.<br />

“While empowering<br />

women, we left the<br />

boy child out and<br />

now this boy child<br />

does not know<br />

how to handle<br />

the empowered<br />

woman.”<br />

Being a social<br />

activist, this 36-year old woman is a jurist<br />

with a conscience. She is a trustee of Law<br />

Fidelity Fund Guarantee, a board member<br />

of Legal Aid Botswana, a board member<br />

of Somarela Tikologo Environment Watch,<br />

and a non- executive director of More Power<br />

Investments.<br />

Above all, she is a wife and a mother,<br />

her marriage to Osego Garebamono, also<br />

a lawyer, proving productive in the form<br />

of their children, Tawanda and Lefika.<br />

Kewagamang wants it known that she is<br />

also a farmer through Smartest (Pty) Ltd.,<br />

a horticulture business that is planning to<br />

go into hydroponic farming as well. “We<br />

have collaborated with a US franchise<br />

in hydroponics,” she explains. “We have<br />

already ordered the equipment which we<br />

will set up at the farm as a demo facility. The<br />

equipment will be for sale.”<br />

Hydroponics, she explains, is a method of<br />

growing plants without soil.<br />

STOP PRESS!<br />

On the day that this edition went<br />

to press, 19 April 2017, attorney<br />

Omphemetse Motumise was on course<br />

to be appointed High Court judge, two<br />

years after the President Ian Khama<br />

turned down a recommendation of<br />

the Judicial Service Commission to<br />

do so.<br />

The Law Society of Botswana and<br />

Motumise added another landmark<br />

victory at the Court of Appeal for<br />

Rantao Kewagamang Attorneys.<br />

24<br />

www.inbusiness.co.bw | <strong>Issue</strong> <strong>12</strong> | 2017

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