Sunday Standard
Rectification or Reform? The SI 41 of 2026 Precedent
On 27 March 2026, the Law Revision Commissioner published Statutory Instrument No. 41 of 2026 — the Rectification of the Laws (Penal Code) Order — deleting paragraphs (a) and (c) of section 164 of the Penal Code. Those paragraphs criminalised carnal knowledge against the order of nature and permitting such an act. With a single statutory instrument, provisions that Parliament had consciously deferred were removed from the law books of Botswana.
The debate that followed has been, understandably, dominated by the substantive question of decriminalisation. But the more important constitutional question — the one that will outlast any particular provision — is the one about method. How did we get here? Who authorised this? And what does it tell us about what might come next?
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The post Rectification or Reform? The SI 41 of 2026 Precedent first appeared on Sunday Standard and is written by Isabella Mathiba
