04 Jun 2014

The Commissioner of Police, Mr Keabetswe Makgophe says the police service will continue to train some special constables to be full-fledged police officers.


Making submission at the ongoing Public Accounts Committee (PAC ) sitting on June 3, Mr Makgophe said for the last two years, Botswana Police Service (BPS) enrolled some special constables for training and did not recruit from outside. 


He, however, noted that though their cut off point was 30 points, in the recent intake, it was reduced to 26 points to accommodate more recruits but without compromising the quality and the integrity of the service.

He said the desire was to absorb more special constables into the fold but they were constraint by the fact that some of them had low academic points. To address this problem, the police chief said they had since encouraged them to enroll with BOCODOL and other learning institutions to upgrade their grades.

He said some of them had been special constables for a long time.
 At the moment there are over 300 police recruits, who were taken from special constable cadre. He said the special constables were doing a sterling job.

Meanwhile Mr Makgophe, whose report was hailed as one of the best so far, said BPS was faced with shortage of transport as it did not inherit any vehicles from the Botswana Local Police when the two merged. Nonetheless he said the organisation was doing all it could to address the problem using funds from traffic fines to buy more vehicles.


Mr Makgophe said as of now, there was no standing policy which allowed officers to use their vehicles and later get remunerated except on rare occasions.


On other issues, he said the police service was concerned by prolonged stock theft cases where they had to take care of livestock which were exhibits. He said at times some of them ended up getting lost or dying in their care.

Mr Makgophe however said they ensure that such animals were save and secure all the times until such cases came to finality.

Regarding whether some influential members of the society were not using their position to bribe junior officers, he said issues of bribery cut across all members of the society including illegal immigrants who sometime try to bribe officers.


The PAC was further informed that BPS has been in constant contact with the Ministry of Infrastructure Science and Technology (MIST) with regard defects found in the recently built Dibete Police Station to see how the contractor could be brought to account. Caravans have been erected at the station to assist with office accommodation. Ends