26 Mar 2019

Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security has made a budget proposal of P9.3 billion for the coming financial year.

Making the proposals recently, Minister Shaw Kgathi indicated that of the amount, P6.8 billion was provision for the recurrent budget, which represented an increase of P1 billion over the 2018/19 budget.

Giving a breakdown of the recurrent budget, Mr Kgathi said the ministry headquarters would get P217 million, which would cater for, among others, provision of anti-retroviral drugs for refugees at Dukwi Refugee Camp and the creation of new positions for the Office of the Receiver.

He said the Botswana Defence Force would get P4 billion, while Botswana Police Service and the Department of Prisons and Rehabilitation would get P2.1 billion and P497.7 million (P497 764 110) respectively.

As for the development budget, Minister Kgathi requested P2.4 billion, of which ministry headquarters would get P40.2 million, Botswana Defence Force P1.7 billion, Botswana Police Service P637 million and P112 million for the Department of Prisons and Rehabilitation.

On the work of the ministry during the 2018/19 financial year, Mr Kgathi pointed out that one of the notable achievements included the development and review of several pieces of legislation aimed primarily at addressing challenges relating to money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

In addition, he said the establishment of the Confiscated Asset Trust Fund was another achievement attained during the year under review.

Furthermore, he said due to emerging global security challenges such as drug and human trafficking, terrorism and money laundering, the ministry had assumed additional responsibilities, a move that had resulted in the establishment of new offices necessary to give effectiveness to the fight against the threats.

One of the offices, he said, was the Drug Enforcement Agency, whose focus was to control the illegal use and trafficking of illicit narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

On the welfare and management of refugees, he said the current population of refugees resident at the Dukwi Refugee Camp stood at 2 042, with 858 refugees being from Namibia, 649 from Zimbabwe, 304 from Somalia and 117 from Democratic Republic of Congo.

Mr Kgathi explained that during the year under review, 144 refugees had voluntarily repatriated to their respective countries, while 70 had been resettled to different countries such as Norway, Canada, Sweden and the US through the facilitation of UNHCR. Ends