24 Jan 2021

United States Ambassador to Botswana Mr Craig Cloud donated a tractor to Botswana Defence Force’s Eastern Military Garrison in Selebi Phikwe.

Handing over the donation he said the tractor was one of the best agricultural engineering the US offered, made by the Massey Ferguson Company of Duluth, Georgia. He said the tractor helped maintain the US Agency for Global Media Voice of America (USAGM) in Selebi Phikwe for several years. “We are happy that it will continue its service life with the BDF,” he said.

The USAGM, he said was a unique component of the United States’ partnership with Botswana, adding that the station manager Mr Chuck Shepard and his team broadcast the Voice of America not only to this country but all over Africa.

“This station is one of the seven USAGM stations in the world and we are honoured that Botswana agreed to host us.”

Mr Cloud stated that for the last 70 years, Voice of America had been a major source of news about the US and prior to the internet it was one of the few ways for people abroad to learn about the US particularly during the Cold War.

“Without USAGM stations like the one here in Selebi Phikwe, none of this would have been possible. I am grateful for the partnership you in the BDF have developed with USAGM, one that has had a real life impact on our diplomatic mission here in Botswana,” he said.

Receiving the donation, Eastern Millitary Garrison’s Two Brigade group commander Brigadier Joseph Seelo thanked the US embassy for the donation adding ‘the donation will forever be sentimental to us as an organisation and will motivate us to always go an extra mile.’

He said the US’ history was marked by bilateral engagements with partner allies to build relationships, capacity and support to civil authorities, noting that the US donated a medical laboratory for infectious disease control, equipped with requisite equipment.

Brig. Seelo noted that through military to military engagements with North Carolina, the BDF had been able to improve its capabilities by developing its human capital.

Such capabilities, he said had been made it possible for the BDF to achieve balance in certain areas and also be recognised as one of the instruments of national power. ENDS