The Hon Peggy Serame has just announced to the nation through parliament how the national cake is going to be shared. That’s the national budget. Botswana’s economy has come a long way. I still recall the year when our budget reached the one billion pula mark in 1989. Indeed we have come a long way.
But my specific interest on this budget is the amount allocated to the Ministry of Defence and Security. This ministry is in the top five ministries running a large amount of approximately P12 billion. This is a combination of both the recurrent and development budget. The ministry’s role and responsibility has been reduced with the removal of legal aspects from it as the justice department has been transferred elsewhere.
Before I can be seen to be too critical of the defence budget, I have to declare that I fully appreciate the importance of security to this nation. I am coming from a military background where I spent twenty years as a career soldier. I fully support an improved budget for all our security agencies.
I have listened to Maj Gen (Ret) Pius Mokgware on radio last week when he was debating this budget. I have to agree with him on that the government needs to invest dearly on security personnel. To agree with him further, there is need to invest more in security. We have seen several cameras around the city of Gaborone and that is part of the critical security infrastructure which needs to be maintained.
Gen Mokgware’s major concern is that little amount is spent on security personnel. He points out to the fact that security personnel in Botswana are highly demotivated due to several factors that include poor accommodation and I would add to say and pay.
Mokgware further touches on the lack of proper equipment for use by security agents. He picked on the police sharing such basic tools such as hand cuffs. Members of the public have always complained about lack of transport in all police stations. It has gotten worse with the current state where police resources have been diverted to escorting cash-in-transit vans. This has opened a big gap in the area of personnel and availability of transportation resources.
In regard to lack of transport at BDF, I would like to mention that this is very acute at this time in point. BDF has used the iconic Land Rover for many decades. These days it is very difficult to come across this brand of vehicles on the streets. The military in Botswana is under severe shortage of SUVs and evidence to that is the growing number of troop carrier trucks that are seen on the road in the place of the Land Rover.
The biggest mistake that occurred was for BDF to buy old Land Rovers from Ministry of Defence UK (MODUK). The deal was brokered by Gen Khama a few months before his departure and those who know will understand that this was never going to be a good deal. The vehicles have preoccupied BDF mechanics as they are forever breaking down. It is very unfortunate that BDF generals over trusted their commander-in-chief on this issue as they are now remaining with the problem in their hands.
I personally have no problem with this current budget for as long as we spend the money in the country on our own people. It is however difficult to come close to 100% on doing that because a lot still needs to be imported. The airplanes that BDF and police are running need spares and fuel from outside the country and a few other things need to be imported.
Someone at the ministry needs to be kind enough to share with us members of the public on how they arrived at this budget. Certainly they were informed by something in order to make this huge allocation. This was not just done out of guess work or some probability. But it will be very interesting to learn about what informed this budget.
The biggest security threat still remains to be on issues of public safety. How my daughter arrives at home after her evening university classes remains paramount to me and everybody else in the community. The threat to an individual citizen is not about securing the skies from foreign flying objects as has been the case in the US. It is all about primary issues of safety.
Someone has mentioned that we have just added several tens of thousands potential criminals on our streets. They were looking at the alarming number of students who failed their junior certificate exams. Some of them will certainly revert to criminal activities.
The country needs true economic stimulation and not like the one Gen Khama was flouting around while he was president. Duma Boko described ESP as an erectile boaster that would only last temporarily. A good economy will translate to job creation and we are seeing none of that and government has to rethink the current strategy.
Petty crime is growing and escalating. People are more worried about a bugler intruding into their house than a poacher entering the Chobe National Park in the dead of the night. In short, government needs to address real fears that citizens are preoccupied with daily. As a nation, we are slowly building an army of thugs and before we know it, the situation will be out of control.
With a ballooned defence budget that we now have, this money could be channelled into job creation projects. The current job creation efforts are too small and negligible and the current strategy will not take this country anywhere. We are an economy reliant on imports and there is need to start searching to find where we can use our money to create jobs.
Imagine that the defence industry is none existent to a point where we are still importing all the small arms ammunition. None of the security organs of the state are even recycling the expensive brass that houses the gunpowder and the warhead which is normally known as a bullet.
