Separation Of Powers: Definition, History And Importance

Introduction

Power can be a very resourceful yet dangerous tool, a person who has power can lose their self-values and without realising so especially when all the power is vested in one person .it can change a person regardless of the kind of character he or she has, it also does not depend on the way one acquired it, whether it was legitimate or illegitimate. Having too much power invested in one person can be dangerous. Botswana has always been known to be a country where peace and tranquillity reigns, a country where love and cooperation is culture and norm of the people. Arm of government are known to work hard together to deliver to the people and hear their cries. The essay therefore discusses the doctrine of separation of powers and the implication of the powers of the president on the applicability of the doctrine in Botswana. It will start by defining the key concepts being separation of powers the give a brief history on how the doctrine started. The essay then goes on to give the members of each arm of government and their function and the importance of separation then of powers the implication of the government on the applicability of the doctrine in Botswana. The paper argues that separation of powers in Botswana is not practical but just a theory. The conclusion will give a brief summary of the discussion at hand.

Definition Of Key Concepts

Power is having control or the ability to command force over people and being able to direct people over a certain direction. When a person has power they are able to exercise authority over people and can mould situations to work on his or her favour. Separation is the disjointing or division of work amongst people. So basically separation of powers is about dividing power amongst different departments or people. Each department or person has different powers over the work they are given and focus on their work only implications.

History Of Separation Of Powers

Separation of powers is a doctrine that emerged in different forms and at different periods. It emerged after the signing of the magna carter. The first development was by a Greek philosopher called Aristotle. According to him power should be divided in to three being the deliberative element that deals with the anything of common importance, the second one being the official element that has officials that deal with policy formulation and the third one is the judicial element that deals with solving of disputes. It was further formulated by Montesquieu who was concerned mostly about combating the dictatorship that was being done by the king of France. According to him there are three kinds of powers in every state namely the legislative power that makes laws and policies. Executive power that establishes the law and policies and the judicial power that punishes crime and solves disputes among private individuals. He argues that no one organ should exercise more than one power as this will lead to erosion of individual liberty. John Locke is another philosopher that developed almost the same ideas. He was English man who believed that power should exercised by different organs and that we cannot have the same people who make the policies to also make the laws as they may exempt themselves from the obedience of the laws and make the policies and law to be in their advantage

Functions Of The Arms Of Government

The executive

In Botswana the executive is an arm of government that consists of the president, vice president, cabinet ministers, and assistant ministers, attorney general and permanent secretaries

Functions

The executive is responsible for carrying out or administering laws that have been enacted by the legislature. It also implements the policies that have been formulated by the parliament.this entails governing the state to ensure that there is order. The executive needs certain powers or to ensure the is tranquillity and safety in the country.

The judiciary

It’s an arm of government that is made up of the chief justice, president of the court of appeal, chairperson of the public service commission, a member of law society Botswana, a person of integrity and experience not a legal practitioner appointed by the president

Function

The judiciary administers and interprets the law of the land.it has to be independent of both legislature as well as the executive. High court has unlimited original jurisdiction in both civil and criminal matters (Nsereko 2010;170)

Legislature

This arm of government consists of the speaker, vice president, deputy speaker, ntlo ya dikgosi, attorney general

The legislature is the arm of government that deals with the formulation of policies.it deals with the drafting of bills and passing them into laws. They consult with the ntlo ya dikgosi especially when consulting on tribal matters

Importance Of Separation Of Powers

Provides checks and balances

As much as these arm of government have their own individual duties they have to keep on checking on each other. This helps ensure that not one hand abuses the power it has or exercises the duty of another arm. According to dingake(2000) the legislture’s law making power can keep the executive and the judiciary in check while the judiciary can check on legislature and the judiciary in check. The executive powers of the purse can be be an effective tool to keep the other organs in their constitutional boundaries.

Encourages efficiency

Separation of powers promotes and encourage efficiency as each branch will focus on its designated job in other words it encourages specialisation. they will be able to know what the public needs and make sure they deliver for example when executive focuses mainly on checking what the public needs and implementing the policies service delivery will be done at lot faster which means people have their needs provided for unlike when it did is involved in both the law making, the passing of the same law and administering the laws. This will make the government slow and waste a lot of money as projects would drag.

Provides accountability

Each ministry has minister who has been appointed to be in charge of the day to day activities. The minister is held accountable for every decision or action that is made. For example in Botswana there is a committee called the public accounts committee that is responsible holding institutions responsible in place of the public. There minister is accountable for every action whether he or she made the decision at the end of the day he or she is the overseer of that institution.

The Political Setting In Botswana

The system of government in Botswana is a hybrid. It’s a combination of both the parliamentary and the presidential system. The president is the head of state

Implications Of Powers Of The President On Separation Of Powers

• As the head of the state the president sings bills before they become laws. He approves which bills can be made into laws and which ones cannot be.
• He sends and receives diplomatic representatives.
• Section 91 of the constitution of Botswana states that the president can dissolve parliament. He appoints cabinet ministers and also performs ceremonial duties.
• The president is also the commander in chief of the armed forces this means that the president determines the operational use of Botswana armed forces.
• The exercises power over prerogative of mercy stated by section 53 of the constitution he can pardon prisoners and free them.
• He has immunity from all criminal proceedings held against him.