“After we had passed the amendments to the Citizenship Act, a woman Lawyer named Unity Dow brought a case challenging a provision of the Act. Under the amendments in the act, her children were not recognised as citizens of Botswana since her husband was not a Motswana. However, if her husband had been a citizen and she had been the non-citizen, the children would be citizens. Why that provision was adopted should be seen in the context of the conditions when the Act was approved. At the time, many of our young women were being used in marriages of convenience. A man who married a Motswana could legally reside here, and it was an advantage for the man to be a Motswana resident. That was the motivation for some of the refugees, including agents of the nations’ security. Unity Dow argued that the law was unconstitutional because it discriminated on the basis of gender. She won her case on appeal; I later appointed her to the High Court as a judge, which clearly showed I held nothing against her for pressing her case” (Masire 2005: 142).
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#bot50
Blessing Kgosi e tsile Kgasa 