30 Jul 2013

Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security is currently looking into conditions of service of Botswana Defence Force (BDF) which will comprehensively deal with issues raised by the de-linking exercise.

Answering a question in Parliament, Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Dikgakgamatso Seretse said categories of professionals and specialists included in the de-linking exercise included accounting technicians and engineering technicians.

Mr Seretse added that Air Arm technicians should have been brought within definitions of engineering technicians.

He said when the ministry realised that the implementation of the de-linking exercise went beyond the defined parameters to include cadre that were not in the Cabinet directive, the exercise was halted to correct it.

“The correction included, excluding those that should not have been included and recovering from them what was paid to them erroneously.

242 members were paid as per the directive and 682 members were erroneously paid,” said the minister.

He explained that the BDF Commander continues to engage those affected negatively by the de-linking exercise with a view to determining the best possible way to mitigate this negativity.

Francistown South MP, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi had requested the minister to update Parliament on the de-linking exercise. ENDS