Botswana Independence Act 1966
| Year | 1966 |
Botswana IndependenceAct 1966
1966 CHAPTER 23
An Act to make provision for, and in connection with, the establishment of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, under the name of Botswana, as an independent republic within the Commonwealth.
[3rd August 1966]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Establishment of Republic of Botswana.
1. On 30th September 1966 (in this Act referred to as ‘the appointed day’) the territory which immediately before that day constitutes the Bechuanaland Protectorate shall cease to be a protectorate and shall become an independent republic under the name of Botswana; and on and after that day Her Majesty shall have no jurisdiction over that territory.
2 Operation of existing law.
(1) Subject to the following provisions of this Act, on and after the appointed day all law which, whether being a rule of law or a provision of an Act of Parliament or of any other enactment or instrument whatsoever, is in force on that day or has been passed or made before that day and comes into force thereafter, shall, unless and until provision to the contrary is made by Parliament or some other authority having power in that behalf, have the same operation in relation to Botswana, and persons and things belonging to or connected with Botswana, as it would have apart from this subsection if on the appointed day the Bechuanaland Protectorate had been renamed Botswana but there had been no change in its status.
(2) Part I of the Schedule to this Act (which relates to enactments applicable to Commonwealth countries having fully responsible status) and Part II of that Schedule (which relates to enactments excepted from the operation of the preceding subsection) shall have effect on and after the appointed day in relation to the enactments therein mentioned; but that Schedule shall not extend to Botswana as part of its law.
(3) Subsection (1) of this section applies to law of, or of any part of, the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, and, in relation only to any enactment of the Parliament of the United Kingdom or any Order in Council made by virtue of any such enactment whereby any such enactment applies in relation to the Bechuanaland Protectorate, to law of any other country or territory to which that enactment or Order extends.
3 Consequential modifications of British Nationality Acts.
(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (6) of this section, the British Nationality Acts 1948 to 1965 shall have effect on and after the appointed day as if in section 1(3) of the British Nationality Act 1948 (Commonwealth countries having separate citizenship) there were added at the end the words ‘and Botswana’, and as if in Schedule 2 to the British Protectorates, Protected States and Protected Persons Order 1965 the words ‘Bechuanaland Protectorate’ were omitted.
(2) A person who immediately before the appointed day is for the purposes of those Acts and of the said Order of 1965 a British protected person by virtue of his connection with the Bechuanaland Protectorate shall not cease to be such a British protected person for any of those purposes by reason of anything contained in the preceding provisions of this Act, but shall so cease upon his becoming a citizen of Botswana.
(3) Except as provided by section 4 of this Act, any person who immediately before the appointed day is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies shall on that day cease to be such a citizen if he becomes on that day a citizen of Botswana.
(4) Section 6(2) of the British Nationality Act 1948 (registration as citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies of women who have been married to such citizens) shall not apply to a woman by virtue of her marriage to a person who on the appointed day ceases to be such a citizen under subsection (3) of this section, or who would have done so if living on the appointed day.
(5) So much of the British Protectorates, Protected States and Protected Persons Order 1965 as relates to former protectorates, and section 5 of the British Nationality (No. 2) Act 1964 in so far as that Order was made by virtue of that section, shall have effect in relation to the Bechuanaland Protectorate as if that Order had been made immediately after the appointed day; and accordingly after the appointed day that Order shall have effect as if, at the beginning of Part I of Schedule 4 thereto, there were inserted in the first column the words ‘Bechuanaland Protectorate’ and in the second column the words ‘Botswana Independence Act 1966, section 3(2)’.
(6) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall affect the meaning of ‘protectorate’ in any law or instrument passed or made before the passing of this Act, not being a law or instrument contained in or made under any of the British Nationality Acts 1948 to 1965.
4 Retention of citizenship of United Kingdom and Colonies by certain citizens of Botswana.
(1) Subject to subsection (5) of this section, a person shall not cease to be a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies under section 3(3) of this Act if he, his father or his father's father—
(a ) was born in the United Kingdom or in a colony; or
(b ) is or was a person naturalised in the United Kingdom and Colonies; or
(c ) was registered as a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies; or
(d ) became a British subject by reason of the annexation of any territory included in a colony.
(2) A person shall not cease to be a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies under the said section 3(3) if either—
(a ) he was born in a protectorate or protected state, or
(b ) his father or his father's father was so born and is or at any time was a British subject.
(3) A woman who is the wife of a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies shall not cease to be such a citizen under the said section 3(3) unless her husband does so.
(4) Subject to subsection (5) of this section, the reference in subsection (1)(b ) of this section to a person naturalised in the United Kingdom and Colonies shall include a person who would, if living immediately before the commencement of the British Nationality Act 1948 , have become a person naturalised in the United Kingdom and Colonies by virtue of section 32(6) of that Act (persons given local naturalisation in a colony or protectorate before the commencement of that Act).
(5) Any reference in this section to a colony, a protectorate or a protected state is a reference to a territory which is a colony, a protectorate or a protected state, as the case may be, within the meaning of the British Nationality Act 1948, on the appointed day, and accordingly does not include a reference to Botswana; and subsection (1) of this section shall not apply to a person by virtue of any certificate of naturalisation granted or registration effected by the governor or government of a territory outside the United Kingdom which is not such a colony, protectorate or protected state on...
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