06 Jun 2017

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security Ms Segakweng Tsiane has revealed that establishment of a national Security Council is going to be one of the issues contained in the national security strategy her ministry would be proposing.

Speaking during her ministry’ appearance at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Friday, Ms Tsiane said Botswana currently does not have a security council. “It is (establishing a security council) an idea that has been proposed in various forums. In the context of the national security strategy that we have proposed, definitely it is going to be one of the issues,” she said.

A member of the PAC, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe had asked if there were any improvements to the national security structures and whether there was a security council in place which brings together heads of the country’s various security agencies.

Mr Gaolathe, who is Member of Parliament for Gaborone Bonnington South further also asked whether the permanent secretary was satisfied with funding of the government security agencies.  Ms Tsiane explained that a detailed presentation on the capacitation of the three security agencies, the Botswana Defence Force, Botswana Police Services and Botswana Prisons Services was made.

She said her ministry was also looking at coming up with the national defence policy which would guide on issues of resourcing and issues of welfare of officers.

“We want the security agencies to be sufficiently resourced and to be sufficiently trained to deal with emerging issues of security threats,” said Ms Tsiane, pointing out that terrorism and cyber-crime were major threats to the security of any country.

Ms Tsiane also admitted that investment on the training of security agencies staff was not enough. Mr Gaolathe complained that low investment on training could affect the ability of agencies to effectively execute their mandate. ENDS