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| | SADOCC - News - BOTSWANA: Constitution to be rid of tribalist clauses (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-31) |
 | | The amendment follows a presidential commission of inquiry set up in July 2000 under former local government and land minister Patrick Balopi "to uphold the non-discriminatory position of the constitution on tribal matters." Sections 77, 78 and 79 of the constitution guarantee ex-officio membership to the house of chiefs only to the Tswana-speaking tribes. |
 | | It advanced the colonial inequality between ruling and subject communities to so-called principal tribes and minority tribes, whose rulers as sub-chiefs could be elected members. |
 | | The Chieftainship Act states that tribe means, "the Bamangwato tribe, the Batawana tribe, the Bakgatla tribe, the Bakwena tribe, the Bangwaketse tribe, the Bamalete tribe, the Barolong tribe and the Batlokwa tribe." These are Tswana-speaking tribes. |
| www.sadocc.at /news/2003-291.shtml (297 words) |
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