Botswana has in the past received accolades of being the most peaceful country in Southern Africa. Any disturbance of this peace is either shunned or seen as a departure from the norm. The advent of trade unions in Botswana has always been looked at with suspicion and they have been seen as militant, which is contrary to the peaceful existence the country has enjoyed regardless of the fact that it is surrounded by countries that have been to war at some point in their history. Therefore, the state has made it a point that any sign of unrest is severely dealt with by the government. Some employees were dismissed un-procedurally as disciplinary procedures were not followed and the court ruled in the employee's favour in 2012. The majority of those dismissed were from the essential services sections of government even though at the beginning some were released through the strike rules agreement between government and unions. Laid down disciplinary rules and procedures of having a hearing were not followed.

Abstract

It has been argued that the leadership of Botswana has upheld liberal democracy hence the birth of an admirable nation. However reality has revealed that the Constitution of Botswana is shallow in promoting democracy. The Constitution of Botswana which espouses an executive presidency has vested sweeping powers in the Presidency. It is probable that a traditionalist culture of respect and authority, hindered any disputing of the post-colonial dispensation, and overlooked the absolutism of the Constitution. In terms of the Constitution of Botswana, the President is both Head of State and Head of Government. Thus the presidency has sweeping powers across a diverse range of areas and acts with little review. This defeats the system of check and balances which is necessary for democracy. The paper therefore argues that an executive Presidency is absolutist hence threatens the legitimacy of democracy.

The purpose of this paper was to explore the effect of HIV/AIDS on job satisfaction amongstthenurses in the public health sector of Botswana. Despite the intensive research on job satisfaction, it would seem dissatisfaction with work has reached critical levels throughout the society and that the nursing profession is no exception to this growing trend. The current study demonstrates that HIV/AIDS has a negative effect on the satisfaction of the nurses and this supports some of the earlier studies on job satisfaction. Therefore the exploration of the effect of HIV/AIDS on job satisfaction has the potential to aid development of strategies to improve the declining level of job satisfaction among nurses in Botswana.