22 Mar 2022

Deployment of the military to assist the Botswana Police Service (BPS) is lawful.

In response to a question in Parliament on Monday, defence, justice and security minister, Mr Kagiso Mmusi said the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) Act, under Section 32 (a) allowed the defence force to, in the interest of national security, co-operate and work with other security organs in discharging their mandate.

Minister Mmusi told legislators that the BDF Act under Section 33 (1) also allowed the Commander, at the request of the Commissioner of Police, and with the consent of the President, to authorise the use of any member or unit of the defence force to support or assist the BPS in discharging its functions under Section 6 of the Police Act.

“It should be appreciated that both the BDF and BPS exist to provide security to the lives and property of the people of Botswana.

They are both, therefore, at the disposal of government to deploy as found necessary to address any threat to safety of Batswana,” said the minister.

He indicated that the other aspect thaat brought the military into what was traditionally classified as policing was the manifestation of crime into areas that had blurred the lines between crime and threat to national security.

“The recent spate of cash-in-transit heists, where criminals use weapons of war, the systemic poaching challenge, transnational crimes, together with the imminent threat of terrorism, are some of the manifestations that compel joint effort between all security agencies.

This means working together even on simple, but preventative tasks such as police patrols,” he added.

Further, the minister acknowledged resource limitations in security agencies, including BPS, adding, however, that partnership between the BDF and the police was an operational necessity that was not only unique to Botswana and not necessarily a measure of resource constraint on either party.

Again, he said aid to civil authorities by the BDF was not just limited to the police, but was extended to all civil authorities when need arose.

“This is done with the acceptance that no department can be resourced to a point where it will never seek external assistance.

It is extended to compliment civil authorities when their resources are stretched by abnormal circumstance like spike in certain crimes, armed robberies, disasters, among others. Military aid to civil power is a common practice in almost all countries, including developed countries with lesser policing resource constraints than Botswana,” Minister Mmusi said.

Okavango MP, Mr Kenny Kapinga, had asked the minister to explain why it appeared that government considered it normal and ideal for the military to be deployed in policing routinely, even for patrol duties.

Mr Kapinga was also of the view that deployment of armed soldiers to police the civilian community was symptomatic of an under resourced police service, hence the minister should consider strengthening the BPS. ENDS