28 Jul 2019

Botswana Police Service has enlisted 8 802 special constables since inception of the special constables programme in 2004, says Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Shaw Kgathi.

Mr Kgathi said of the 8 802 special constables enlisted, 3 823 have been absorbed on permanent and pensionable basis which translated to 43 per cent absorption rate.

Mr Kgathi said there had been delays in processing the terminal benefits for the special constables and that the shortest time taken to pay terminal benefits was two months while the longest time was  24 months.

“As at June 30, 2019, out of 7 298 special constables who qualified for terminal benefits, 1 420 have not been paid yet.

The process of payment is at various stages as 113 have been submitted for payment, 469 have been absorbed by the April 2019 BPS intake and processing their terminal benefits is ongoing,” he said.

He further said 338 were awaiting supporting documents from respective claimants while 5 000 were going through payment verification.

He said special constables who were occasionally required to work in specialised fields in the BPS, such as CID, were paid plain clothes allowance.

Minister Kgathi also noted that there was no differentiation in terms of qualifications between male and female potential officers.

The MP for Gaborone Central, Dr Phenyo Butale had asked for the absorption rate of special constables into the Botswana Police Service on a permanent and pensionable basis.

He also asked how long it took to pay terminal benefits to special constables who had served their contracts, and how many special constables nationwide who had served their contracts had not been paid their terminal benefits and why. 

Furthermore, Dr Butale asked why special constables were not paid the same allowances like other ordinary officers for specialised jobs which they performed such as clothing allowance for criminal investigation department personnel. ENDS