Legal Eagle heads to the USA

Alumna, Njiramanda Mbewe-Boatey, Founder, Chief Executive officer and Lead Attorney of the self-owned female-led inclusive Mbewe Legal practice based in Gaborone, Botswana, has been selected as a Mandela Washington Fellow for Young African Leaders this year. She will be based at the presidential precinct, a Leadership Organisation, in Charlottesville Virginia for six weeks completing the fellowship.

Furthermore, Mbewe-Boatey will participate in the Summit in Washington DC, and has also been selected to work for four weeks to complete her Professional Development Experience (PDE) at the Urban Justice Centre in New York.

After graduating with her LLB’12 from Nelson Mandela University she was employed by a prominent advocate in Botswana. Following her three-year stint, she had the vision to provide employment opportunities and empower women in the much male dominated law fraternity ironically, despite Lady Justice being female.

This year will mark seven years since the inception of her legal practice, which currently is one of the leading private practices. Her goal is balancing the management of her practice while serving the community especially the indigent in rural areas by taking access of justice to them.

“I achieve this through community visits, registering community trusts for socio economic development, being on radio over the weekends and using social media – I believe in the rule of law,” she says.

Mbewe-Boatey is a pioneer in pro bono work and the founder of an anti-Gender Based Violence Network called ‘Baagisanyi Network’ in Setswana meaning ‘to build each other’.

“I have put together a reverend father, village leaders (called kgosi’s), mental health specialists, therapists and lawyers in an aim to intervene against and fight Gender Based violence/Domestic violence which has heightened and become a pandemic itself after the Covid pandemic.

Some of her community initiatives include:

• An intervention programme whereby she partnered with one of the prominent NGOs in Botswana and was launched by the Minister of Health in 2021.
• A network session called Legal Ladies Botswana providing mentorship and networking sessions for girls, law students and lawyers with the purpose of learning and being inspired by Judges and prominent leading women in law.
• Committee member in the Law Society of Botswana’s Advocacy and Law Reform Committee
• Chairperson and board member of the Stop Smoking Group under National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAHPA)
• Contributes and collaborates with woman’s shelters and participating in various fundraising initiatives

Driven by justice, she aims to educate people about their constitutional rights for them to make better life decisions.

“I am driven by the need to see justice not only being done but being seen to be done – my passion truly lies in helping people,” she adds.

Mbewe-Boatey shares “My fellow alumni, Nelson Mandela University has equipped us with the skills we can use to thrive, let us “blossom into more and not shrink down into less”. The name of our university is the epitome of greatness. When we think about Nelson Mandela, we think of overcoming adversity and being “the change we wish to see”, and so we must be just that and nothing less. Lastly, as we strive for success, let us remember that what counts in life is not that we have lived, it is the difference we make in the lives of others, that truly determines the significance of the life we lead.”?

Njiramanda Mbewe