04 Oct 2018

Botswana Defence Force (BDF) Commander, Lt Gen. Placid Segokgo, says acquisition of military equipment by the army does not mean Botswana is joining the arms race.

Briefing the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday, Lt Gen. Segokgo said acquisition of the equipment was to enable the BDF to stay in readiness as well as maintain its capability to respond to an array of national challenges.

He said he believed that the amount of military equipment the army had and continued to acquire was relative to the level of security that the country needed to maintain, indicating in addition that military equipment provided a deterrent effect to possible aggressors.

The commander disagreed with the notion that Botswana did not need huge amount of military equipment due to the country having friendly neighbours.

He stated that since every country would forever have threats and opportunities, it was crucial therefore for Botswana to have a contingency to plan around.

He said the country thus needed to be prepared at all times since it could not afford to rest on its laurels on the simple account of it having friendly neighbours.

Regarding the BDF’s role in plugging Botswana’s seemingly porous borders, Lt Gen. Segokgo called the PAC’s attention to the small size of Botswana’s army. He said given the size of the army, it was not possible to have troops deployed at every point of the borderline.  He nonetheless assured the committee that the BDF would continue to conduct routine patrols at strategic areas of the border, saying the troops deployed in such patrols provided intelligence necessary for ensuring the country’s territorial integrity.

As for the army’s role in anti-poaching, the commander said the BDF had begun to support anti-poaching activities when the country began to experience an upswing in wildlife crimes.

He noted that while the army believed in leaving issues of crime to crime fighting agencies, the limited number of personnel at the disposal of the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism’s anti-poaching unit, they had seen the need to continue supporting the drive to contain wildlife crimes.

On participation in responding to disasters such as floods and veld fires, the army chief said there was a lot that could be done to improve the whole of government’s response mechanism to a host of challenges.

He indicated that while the BDF was always willing to assist in responding to disasters, the limited number of its troops often hampered their desire to assist, resulting in the army at times availing only a small number of personnel to help.

Pertaining to the deployment of troops to participate in peacekeeping missions, Lt Gen Segokgo explained that several factors needed to be considered before effecting such deployments

Among those, he cited the need to ensure force protection by assessing the situation’s potential of loss of troops as well as the existence of the possibility of attaining a state of peace and stability.  He said it did not make military sense to send troops where parties at conflict were not yearning for peace. ENDs