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Development of a policy and possibly a combination of
legislation and industry codes of conduct to deal with the protection of
personal privacy, particularly in the context of cross-border data flow,
health care, and financial services.
4.6
Other legal issues will require examination in the medium to longer
term. For example, a review of the Penal Code and other regulatory
legislation will determine whether Botswana is prepared to deal with
new cyber-crimes. Tax policies and mutual taxation agreements may
require review and negotiation to ensure that Botswana receives its fair
share of taxation revenues from e-commerce. The desire to have more
access to Government information that was expressed in community
visits indicates that access to information legislation should be explored
to provide a framework for access (and its flip-side, protection of
personal and commercial privacy) for citizens.
4.7
More information about proposed future action can be found in the
Action Plans developed for the recommendations of the Legal and
Policy Task Force, as well as for the other Task Forces.
5.0 Proposals
5.1
The study on Legal e-Readiness and the Legal Gap Analysis indicate
that a number of legislative and policy changes will be required to
provide the legal and policy infrastructure needed to support Maitlamo.
The responsibility for these changes is shared among a number of
Ministries and several Parastatal organisations. Co-ordination and
priority setting across Government will be required to achieve the
necessary results within an acceptable time period.
5.2
Given the number of issues that must be resolved, the various interests
and parties that must be consulted, and the co-ordination that must be
achieved, it is critical that both political and administrative will at the
highest levels of all relevant Government Ministries, Local Authorities
and Parastatal Organisations be harnessed to drive the legislative and
legal policy initiatives of Maitlamo. It is also critical that a mechanism
be created to co-ordinate these initiatives and to ensure that
accountability is maintained for the delivery of these inter-related, yet
separate, initiatives within the target time periods.
5.3
To assure that high level support is provided to these initiatives and to
co-ordinate and ensure accountability for the development and delivery
of legislative initiatives and programmes, an Inter-ministerial Legal