Botswana High Court to hear landmark same-sex marriage case in July

Botswana’s High Court will hear a pivotal challenge on 14 and 15 July that could open the door to legal same-sex marriage, positioning the country to become the second in Africa, after South Africa, to allow such unions.

The case has been brought by a lesbian couple, 41‑year‑old Bonolo Selelo and 39‑year‑old Tsholofelo Kumile. The two met in 2022 and became engaged in 2024. When they attempted to register their marriage, authorities refused, prompting the couple to seek relief from the courts, Q News reports.

“My fiancée and I seek to formally create a family through marriage. We seek to enjoy the same rights, dignity and recognition as heterosexual couples in Botswana, in relation to solemnising our marriage,” Selelo stated in her submission to the High Court.

Same-sex marriages currently receive no legal recognition in Botswana, and same-sex couples do not benefit from alternative forms of legal partnership. The country’s Constitution does not refer to same-sex marriage, and Botswana’s Marriage Act does not explicitly prohibit it. In recent years, however, the judiciary has adopted interpretations of constitutional protections that affirm LGBTQIA+ rights.

In June 2019, Botswana’s High Court struck down the colonial-era law criminalising homosexuality. The Court of Appeal upheld that ruling in 2021, confirming that “sex” in Section 3 of the Constitution should be “generously and purposively interpreted” to include sexual orientation. In March 2026 those invalidated provisions were formally removed from the statute books, consolidating the legality of same-sex relationships in the country.

Across the continent, legal landscapes for LGBTQIA+ people continue to move in different directions. Some governments have intensified criminal penalties, while others have advanced decriminalisation and equality. Angola decriminalised homosexuality in 2021, Mauritius followed in 2023 and Namibia in 2024. Gabon briefly criminalised same-sex relations in 2019 and repealed the law in 2020.

The outcome of Selelo and Kumile’s case will be closely watched by LGBTQ+ communities, human rights advocates and legal observers across Africa.

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