Col. William Phethu; BDF�s mother of armour
Richard Moleofe | Friday May 6, 2016 12:22
” We had a good time over the phone as the colonel was giving me his honest feedback on what I had written.
I always do get feedback from both serving and retired soldiers and this helps me to refine my research on military topics because I know there are experts in the different areas who read what I write. I am open to objective criticism whether it is positive or negative. I still have to respond to Col. Dikole’s rebuttal on several topics I discussed recently. But he is one character who finds objectivity very illusive.
I have also been challenged by retired Warrant Officer Class 1 Victor Kgaswane who has also worked his entire life under different armour units. The two officers found gaps on the issues I discussed about the Shorland. My objective was actually to raise awareness in preserving our history because the Shorland was the first armoured car for this country.
Col. Phethu was an elite armour officer and he rightly calls himself “Mother of Armour.” He knows everything about the genesis of armour in Botswana Defence Force (BDF). The colonel was tasked with the role of forming the first armour formation which was a platoon.
He has such detailed memory about every detail regarding armour at BDF. In fact he gets a bit emotional when he talks about armour. When he speaks about armour, you can tell that for him this was not just a career but a calling.
When I first had my first interaction with armour officers at BDF in 1986, I had believed that retired Colonel Ratshosa was the “mother of armour.” I could never leave his house without him mentioning some elements about armour formations. I had a shock of my life when Col. Phethu mentioned that he actually trained and drilled Ratshosa into armour. Very interesting information I discovered.
In those years these were young officers and Colonel Ratshosa was particularly somewhat mad about armour. He had just returned back from Moscow where he did training on the BTR 60. This is an eight wheeled armoured personnel carrier capable of carrying 11 men.
It is one thing to wake up one morning and find that what you have always known as gospel truth has sudden taken a twist. I have received confirmation from other officers who were present at the time that indeed Colonel Phethu is the originator of armour at BDF.
The history of armour in Botswana is an interesting one indeed. Starting with the Shorland to the current SK105 is indeed a journey. I have said a mouthful about the Shorland and I need to move on to give other armour articles some space. The American made V-150 came after the Shorland and it arrived at the hour of need. BDF’s inventory was still very thin and the acquisition of this article was a great boost. There are several models of the V-150 and each one of them carries different forms of armament. Common to all of them is the coaxial machine gun. Other variants are mounted with 20mm, 90mm and battle defining .50 inch gun.
The Soviet Union was as generous to Botswana as they made a donation of several of the brand new BTR 60 armoured personnel carriers. These are robust all terrain vehicles with a reasonable skin of armour. These were primarily troop carriers under the protection of armour. They carried a formidable weapon on the turret with an amazing level of accuracy.
BDF’s excitement was so short-lived because when these vehicles arrived, they came through the commercial sea port of Durban. The South African security official did not like what they saw and they hatched a plan to destroy these machines before the machines were used against them. Intelligence sources claim that an industrial corrosive chemical was placed in each of their fuel tanks in order to disable the engines. Indeed they were right. During the 1985 raid in Gaborone, BDF entirely depended on the BTR 60 in their pursuit of the enemy columns as they made their way into South Africa through an ungazzeted point. Included in the Soviet Christmas present was the BRDM which is primarily a command vehicle. It is usually mounted with a 14.5mm canon for its own defence. The 76mm canon mounted Scorpion tank was procured in 1994 after a long silence in the procurement of armour at BDF. This British-made tank is primarily a reconnaissance piece. Short and quick, it became ideal for the terrain in this country. It has had a very short lifespan because it was full of technical challenges. In 1996 a decision was made to settle for an Austrian tank.
The SK 105 takes the name from the gun it carries which is a 105mm gunship. This is equivalent to a medium-range field artillery gun. It was equally surrounded by several technical difficulties that actually prevented the users from enjoying it as their main battle tank (MBT).
The decision to settle for the SK 105 was hurried and completely out of order. This came after the Namibians influenced the Germans to refuse the conclusion of a transaction between Botswana and Holland.
It all started when NATO forces were downsizing as a result of the end of the Cold War. The Dutch were willing to dispose a lot of their military hardware on us at a giveaway price. Part of the deal was to sell the German made Leopard II tanks to Botswana.
These are second generation tanks with a somewhat sophisticated technology. The deal never went through because the manufacturer did not allow the Dutch permission to pass them on to us. All the equipment mentioned here was always as a result of the advice of Colonel Phethu, an officer of distinction from Bovington School of Armour in UK.