15 Dec 2024

 Human Rights are from God and not the Constitution, says President Advocate Duma Boko.

 Giving a word of encouragement at the First Lady’s National Thanksgiving and Prayer Service in Gaborone on Sunday, President Boko said God created natural justice and human rights were traceable God’s transcending power, adding that such were the law of God Himself.

 He highlighted the interconnectedness of four concepts namely love, transcendence, gratitude and imagination, which he said played a role in fostering a harmonious society.

 President Boko explained to a gathering of multitudes of Christians from different denominations that transcendence power was manifested in everyone as love representing commitment to the wellbeing of others.

Alluding to Pitseng Gaoberekwe’s ordeal, whose burial took place three years after death because his family was yearning to bury him in his ancestral land, but was denied that right, President Boko said, “We are destitute of love if we behave that way towards each other. Where is the love? That is a troubling question. It torments me.” he said.

 He also said when people’s rights were upheld, praise had to go to God.

 “Love thy neighbour as thy self,” he said.

President Boko further said natural justice is illustrated in the Biblical Garden of Eden where God placed two individuals. He said unlike people who were quick to condemn, God called on the two residents of Eden to account and gave them a fair hearing.

 “He asked them, what did you do? He listens.”

He said God started the law of justice, lawyers adopted it and was honoured more in lives than in observance as it boiled down to love.

“In the ultimate instance, love is what justice looks like in public,” he said.

Gratitude, he said, was giving thanks in all circumstances.

President Boko said the law that dictates that anyone seeking to register a church should have a following of 150 people would be taken to Parliament for amendment in a bid to bring the pre-requisite number of followers to 20. And shall come to pass, he proclaimed.

In a somewhat prophetic statement, President Boko said the lives of Batswana were about to be transformed in a spectacular way and Botswana be the guiding light of the world when poverty would no longer trouble any citizen.

The sermon, which the host, First Lady Kaone Boko declared would be annual, was characterised by preachers alternating the pulpit, sharing the Word and leading iniving thanks to God Almighty while encouraging the church to give all their burdens to God in prayer. ENDS