11 Dec 2022

Agile and well educated military officers are needed to meet the increasingly volatile and complex operational environment, Acting President  Slumber Tsogwane has said.

He was speaking at a Botswana Defence Force (BDF) Senior Command and Staff Programme graduation ceremony on Friday.

Mr Tsogwane said while Botswana needed defence infrastructure and equipment, ‘we also need well educated officers capable of leading our military in meeting challenges of an increasingly volatile, complex and uncertain operational environment’.

He advised the Defence Command and Staff College management to invest  in research and development in order to keep up with contemporary and emerging security challenges.

The acting president said the ceremony was testament  to government’s commitment towards personnel capacity development through education and training.

Through education and training, the BDF would be able to anticipate and make intelligent projections on future defence operational matters, said Mr Tsogwane.

He noted that the college was established to offer professional military education to serve selected officers both from the military and other government departments.

“Defence and Staff College was thus established to offer officers professional military education in order to enhance national security. 

The graduation of Class of 14 of 2022 comes at a critical time when the region is faced with unprecedented challenges,” he said.

A total of 57 officers graduated, including 10 from nine African countries of Lesotho, South Africa, Zambia, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Kenya.ENDS