A detail that the Botswana Police Service (BPS) thought it could hide from the public has been revealed by sources from within the Service itself. Going back to last year, Botswana has been experiencing an unprecedented spate of armed robberies of cash-in-transit (CIT) trucks. The trucks are owned by private security companies and practically all such trucks were carrying cash sales from big supermarket chains. Private security guards don’t carry guns and in response to this national security challenge, CIT trucks are now escorted by armed security personnel from the BPS, Botswana Defence Force (BDF) and the Directorate of Intelligence Services and Security. While welcomed by most, this development has also caused a lot of concern among some members of the public.
The concern is that public resources (being personnel and the firepower it carries as well as vehicles and fuel) are used to escort private property owned by deep-pocketed people. Concerned parties wanted to know whether the businesses whose money is transported in CIT trucks (that are escorted by law enforcement) are paying for this very special service. Down the road (two months ago) a question seeking to close this information was put to the BPS public relations office. Despite what its name says, this office is habitually secretive even on public-interest issues whose discussion cannot compromise police operations in any way. Resultantly, the office declined to say whether or not the government was getting payment for this service. However, Sunday Standard learns from good sources that from Day 1 to date, the government’s armed escort service is being provided free of charge. One BPS source says that this is highly anomalous because it represents preferential treatment. “Everybody else in the country would want armed protection for their property but only one group of people is getting such protection for their property,” says the source, adding that this preferential treatment is not unlike deploying armed law enforcement officers to guard a particular neighbourhood to thwart criminal activity while all other neighbourhoods don’t get similar protection.
“It is in the interests of fairness, to allocate policing resources equally.” That point is echoed by another BPS source, a senior police officer, who says that if another group of business entities or people agitate for armed protection, the Service would be put in a tough spot. This source makes an even more interesting point: that the special service that the beneficiary companies are getting has eased pressure on them to fend for themselves. “If the government wasn’t providing them with armed protection, these companies would have been forced to implement some security measures and bear the financial cost. They are under no pressure to do that because the government has assumed such responsibility – – and the cost that comes with it, on their behalf,” says the source. While he accepts that armed escorts are necessary, Okavango MP, Kenny Kapinga, adds that it is as necessary to find a permanent and sustainable solution.
“Security companies pay tax to government and are entitled to benefit from such taxes where circumstances dictate,” says Kapinga who brings a lot of expertise to this issue as a former Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations). “I believe that it was essential for the police to provide the escorts at a time when CIT events were spiralling out of control but it should not have been made a permanent solution.” The reason he gives for the latter is that “it will be very costly to the government to maintain this arrangement indefinitely.” For his part, Kapinga articulates a less costly, more sustainable four-point plan under the auspices of specialised BPS task teams that he believes the government should have put in place in the meantime. Such teams would undertake intensive gathering; consist of rapid response teams using both helicopters and motor vehicles; specialised investigating teams; and a dedicated prosecution team from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
Interestingly, the government can ease itself of the financial burden it is currently heaving under by transferring it to the private security companies themselves. However, there is no consensus on this option. Kapinga says that he is in full support of CIT teams being armed, adding though that such action should be preceded by another action that is even more important: “intensive firearms training” under the supervision of either the BPS or BDF. It turns out that within BPS itself, such sentiment is held very strongly at an operational level. Says the senior-police-officer source: “We wouldn’t be the first country in the world to do that – South Africa next door is a good example of a country whose security guards are licensed to carry firearms. We can also do the same thing; we just need to ensure that security guards are trained to the right standard in the handling of firearms. That would lighten up our workload and we would be able to focus on other equally pressing policing matters.” Security companies themselves have publicly advocated for such arming.
Last year, as the robberies ramped up, the chairperson of the Business Botswana’s Security Sector, Gaolatwe Mudongo, proposed that security guards should be legally permitted to carry firearms in order to thwart armed robberies. On the other hand, a former BDF Deputy Commander, Major General Pius Mokgware, has publicly expressed opposition to such proposal, telling The Botswana Gazette that private security companies need to regulate themselves more rigorously and introduce proper standards. “It is clear that the problem is within and not outside. The private security sector has failed to regulate itself and introduce standards. In Botswana, anyone can form a security company and anyone can be employed as security personnel. We don’t even have the basic requirements. Vetting or profiling is not done,” the paper quotes Mokgware as saying. The former Gabane-Mankgodi MP added that the labour practices of security companies are a problem. He cited low wages as well as denial of risk allowance and insurance cover and said that these poor working conditions may force guards to turn to crime in order to survive.
“It would be a serious mistake to arm private security personnel until the companies demonstrate that they are able to manage themselves. The government should review the licences of all the companies which have been affected by the robberies,” Mokgware said. Back then, Mokgware had also identified the intelligence gap that Kapinga proposes should be plugged with more rigorous intelligence gathering. “Our intelligence has also failed us. One would expect them to be way ahead of the criminals,” Mokgware said. In terms of cost, there is an interesting parallel with how Debswana Diamond Company, which is partly state-owned, does business with BPS. For decades now, the latter has been escorting diamonds from the company’s mines. It turns out that Debswana routinely buys and retrofits police vehicles and donates them to BPS. Some of the companies that benefit from the government’s armed escort have reported healthy profits but nothing suggests they are about to follow Debswana’s example.
