Government has been accused of "trampling upon the human rights of its citizens". The accusation was made by Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) secretary general Temogo Makgele when addressing Botswana Congress Party (BCP) third national congress in Ramotswa. Makgele said there were many contradictions in the country's democracy which government was reluctant to rectify.

Health authorities have confirmed a new case of polio in Botswana - the first in southern Africa since 1997 - and traced it to Nigeria. The finding jeopardizes efforts to eradicate the disease and prompted preparations for a nationwide immunization program in Botswana to reach 250,000 children. "This shows unless the virus is eradicated everywhere, no one is protected anywhere," said Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, senior adviser for immunization activities for UNICEF in New York. "As long as we have a couple of pockets of transmission, we are not safe at all."

The government has been warned that should they exclude youth opinions in decision-making they would be sitting on a time bomb. According to Kagiso Ntume of the Botswana National Youth Council (BNYC) "in most historical revolutions it was the young people who started the movement towards change." He also said that youth organisations that are in existence only encourage a lot of head nodding and do not accommodate the youth opinions at the macro level.

Parents the world over usually find it difficult to talk to their children about sex, even if they are growing up in a country like Botswana, with one of the highest HIV rates on the planet. Embarrassment over discussing matters related to sex and the stigma surrounding those that are HIV-positive is helping to drive the pandemic. It is a challenge the Botswana government hopes to overcome, and this week opened the latest voluntary HIV testing facility in Molepolole, about 50 km outside the capital, Gaborone.

Africa, the world's poorest continent, has to usher in good governance and tackle Aids on a war footing if it is to catch up with the rest of the world, Bostwana President Festus Mogae said on Sunday while inaugurating a global conference of civil society activists. "Ensuring good governance and democracy is widely accepted as one of the key prerequisites to sustainable development and security and, as such, constitutes a core part of Africa's promise," Mogae told a gathering of international delegates attending the five-day summit. The conference is organised by Civicus, a global alliance of groups dedicated to citizens' participation based in some 125 countries.

The challenge within the theme of political justice is essentially how do we democratise democracy, this was said by the CIVICUS Secretary General Kumi Naidoo. Naidoo was speaking at the opening session of the plenary meeting of CIVICUS held in Gaborone. “Despite the rise in institutionalisation of elections around the world, democracy is in deep crisis and its quality has not improved,” Kumi Naidoo said.

Dr Prega Ramsamy, Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on 23 March 2004 has reaffirmed civil society's vital role in efforts at regional integration. He has highlighted SADC's commitment to a partnership with civil society, to find lasting solutions to the development needs in southern Africa, writes Nombuso Dlamini in Botswana.

Few pregnant mothers in Botswana are accessing free HIV/AIDS related services, including free antiretrovirals being provided by the state, says a recent study. The survey of 504 women at ante-natal clinics and in post-natal wards countrywide, revealed that although 95 percent were accessing the health care provided at these facilities, the utilisation of free Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services and voluntary testing was still low - though it had increased from 38 percent in 2002 to 58 percent in 2003.

After completing an education project at Dukwi refugee camp, Botswana in July 2003, a team of Stanford University students is now pursuing a unique education programme for refugee youth: the World Refugee Academy (WRA). Its mission is to facilitate the development of young refugees into responsible leaders and candidates for world-renowned universities. WRA aims to provide more and better opportunities for refugee students pursuing higher level education. The project plans to offer an advanced two-year preparatory programme for refugee students who aspire to continue higher academic study at leading universities worldwide. Its curriculum is designed especially for refugee youth and integrates rigorous academics, leadership projects and a mentoring programme.

A coalition of thirteen associations of non-Tswana speaking ethnic groups in Botswana, including the Wayeyi tribal community, have raised their concerns over 'assimilationist policies' which deny their linguistic and cultural rights and leave them marginalized. Calling for dialogue with the government, the coalition representative stated that non-Tswana speaking groups are not recognized or consulted on decisions affecting their lives through their chiefs, lack rights to land, and do not have their languages used in education, the national radio and other social domains.

The World Alliance for Citizen Participation (CIVICUS) has begun its biennial World Assembly with strong words from Botswana President Festus Mogae about the relocation of members of his country's San community. The assembly is being held in Botswana's capital, Gaborone. A non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Britain, Survival International, claims that Mogae's government has evicted the San - or Basarwa - from lands they had traditionally occupied in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve to make way for mineral exploitation.

A survey of listeners to Botswana's popular HIV/AIDS radio drama, "Makgabaneng", has revealed a lack of specific knowledge about the virus in a country with the world's highest level of HIV infection. Only 55 percent of respondents rejected the myths that mosquitoes can spread HIV, sex with a virgin can cure AIDS, and healthy looking people cannot have the virus.

With nimble fingers, Sobo Cgara digs around a plant and unearths a calabash-shaped root full of water. Cgara, 24, is a San guide who shows tourists his people's unique knowledge of the Kalahari at a community-owned game farm near D'kar in Ghanzi district, in central-west Botswana. He is one of the few San youth with education, a job and a future. For centuries and up to the present, the San have been the losers in the conflict between their need for land on which to forage and the demands of cattle ranching.

Despite the fact that the Botswana government prides itself on gender equality in school enrolment, girls struggle against huge disadvantages to obtain an education. "The hardships the girl child had to face in the past are still endured today. It all starts at home in the morning when she wakes up to make sure that the house is swept and prepares food for the whole family [before going to school]," said Boipelo Semere, a member of the Girl Education Movement. According to the Ministry of Education, there has been a dip in the enrolment of girls in primary schools from 50.7 percent in 1993 to 49.4 percent in 2003. Girl enrolment in secondary school has also fallen from 53.5 percent in 1993 to 51.9 percent in 2003.

At first glance, Dukwi looks like your usual African refugee camp, with children attending school, adults working in a weaving and tailoring project, neighbours chatting and babies playing happily in the mud. But probe deeper into Botswana’s only refugee camp and you’ll find that like no other place in the region, it captures the recent history of southern Africa in a nutshell. Dukwi refugee camp was once a place for exiles from countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe to meet and discuss strategies for a liberated southern Africa. The camp boasts former residents who are prominent leaders in the region today. Today, the camp is still home to some 3,500 people, the largest groups being 1,200 Namibians from the Caprivi Strip and 1,200 refugees from Angola. The rest come from elsewhere in Africa – Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, with a few cases from Kenya and Tanzania.

The Okavango Delta is a creature of extraordinary subtlety with roots deep in Africa. In summer, tropical storms rumble and flash across the high Bei Plateau from Huambo to Cuito Cuanavale. Water pours off steep slopes, gathering sand, leeching salts from the sodden Earth, and picking up speed as it gutters down long, straight valleys. As you read this, engineers, politicians, and ecologists are pondering a dam that could lead to the death of the Okavango Delta in Botswana, Southern Africa.

The development of Botswana's infrastructure, including transportation, urban growth and social mobility, has contributed to the rapid spread of HIV in the country, according to reports. With 38% of the adult population in Botswana estimated to be HIV-positive, the country has the highest HIV prevalence in the world.

Government should banish certain human rights organisations from Botswana because they encourage crime by speaking for and defending criminals. Residents of Monarch in the Francistown East constituency made the call in a kgotla meeting with their MP, Phandu Skelemani. They said such organisations did not serve any purpose in society.

Despite the growing number of women choosing a media career, very few are in decision-making positions, a situation the recently formed Botswana Media Women Association (BOMWA) aims to correct. "In the leadership positions we have not reached 30 percent representation because media remains male-dominated at management levels," said Shollo Phetlhu, BOMWA chairperson and acting general manager of Botswana TV (BTV).

Botswana's democracy is often considered to be a comparatively advanced and positive example of an African state in terms of political culture and the notion of "good governance". Focussing on the particular situation of the Bushmen/San as a marginalized minority denied citizens' rights, this paper challenges the assumption that the country's current political and socio-economic system is, in fact, exemplary. The author has on previous occasions presented and published related analyses within the research network on "Liberation and Democracy in Southern Africa" (LiDeSA), which is currently coordinated through the Nordic Africa Institute. This publication is another result of the collaboration within this project.