The Speaker of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

is the presiding officer of the

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature, which consists of one house or assembly, that legislates and votes as one. Unicameral legislatures exist when there is no widely perceived need for multic ...

Parliament of Botswana The Parliament of Botswana consists of the President and the National Assembly. In contrast to other Parliamentary systems, the Parliament elects the President directly (instead of having both a ceremonial President and a Prime Minister who has ...

. Since

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

's independence from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in 1965, eight men and women have served as Speaker. The first,

Alfred Merriweather Alfred Musgrave Merriweather OBE, CBE (19 August 1918 – 8 October 1999) was a Scottish missionary in Botswana, who was a member of the National Assembly of Botswana and its first Speaker. He helped improve public health in Botswana. Biograph ...

, a Scottish

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

and

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

, served from 1965 to 1968. The current Speaker,

Phandu Skelemani Phandu Tombola Chaka Skelemani (born 5 January 1945) ...

, has been speaker since 5 November 2019.

List of speakers

Sources

Former Speakers of Parliament
Official website of the Parliament of Botswana {{DEFAULTSORT:Speakers of the National Assembly of Botswana *

Lists of political office-holders in Botswana National Assembly (Botswana)