BDF soldiers should avoid BDP

Richard Moleofe | Friday October 28, 2016 16:07

When this system came into place we were told that it was good enough to accommodate up to 50 million vehicles. That’s an astronomically huge number that will only be reached after the next 100 years from today. Batswana have very interesting spending patterns. It is at the end of every year that most of us begin to scramble to buy this and that commodity.

The motor industry in this country has grown in great leaps and a great majority of these car dealers are found in Mogoditshane. I always like to refer to this place as the motor capital of Botswana. The dealerships envelop the main Molepolole Road that traverses and bisects the heart of the City of Mogoditshane.

For many years, Mogoditshane which some residents refer to as “Mogadishu” has had the Sir Seretse Khama Barracks as the leading economic contributor to the village’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The barracks is one place in Mogoditshane which boasts of high volumes of income per person.

The dominance of Mogoditshane’s economy by the military establishment has somewhat slowed down. In fact I should say the motor industry has overthrown the military to occupy the number one spot. From driving along the Molepolole Road, it is evident that the motor industry has become major here.

People from across the country converge in Mogoditshane to make their personal choices on the different motor vehicles they want to purchase. I am made to understand that government has changed the rules of the game in the way traders are allowed to operate. They are now required to operate under showrooms. I wish a study could be conducted to measure the industry’s contribution to the village’s GDP. But from the look of things, it is evident that this is a multibillion Pula business.

However, soldiers are still a significant part of the economy of the village. By nature, these men and women are classified under high spending groups in any society. Until lately, soldiers were earning a little higher than civilians, but that has now come to a stop.

Because of the soldier’s fall from grace in as far as the economic ladder is concerned, they have also adjusted their methods of spending. Most of our soldiers do not have that excess income to spend on their wants, but rather they are restricted to spending on their needs.

Soldiers form a significant customer base for the motor industry in Mogoditshane. First hand car dealerships have become out of reach for most soldiers and that means that their choices are just next door.

Soldiers have always been at the top when it comes to purchasing motor vehicles. This goes back to the 1980s when new cars were usually a thing for soldiers. In those days, soldiers would keep their vehicles for only two years and progress to purchase a new one. For most civilian civil servants, the most likely place to find a sound used car was the barracks.

Those years were so good and I am a witness to that period of false prosperity. When I was a Second Lieutenant, I qualified for a Toyota 4x4 top-of-the-range. But when I retired 20 years later, I could barely qualify for a Toyota Corolla bottom-of-the-range.

The military at the time did not advise its youthful population on investing in other avenues of the economy such as property. Years later, the effects of investing in moveable properties such as cars that depreciate came to haunt many soldiers. Many of them were having problems retiring because they had not built any houses for themselves. It was common to read letters of officers in particular asking for service extension for reasons that they were still servicing a loan.

The current vehicle registration is very interesting. Some of us have been watching how it progresses. All of a sudden the registration skipped B100BDF. Actually the whole BDF range has been skipped. I have enquired from Road Transport officials, but they tell me that they only received an instruction from above.

Apparently the authorities felt that such registrations would cause an immense confusion on our roads. What confusion? I think our authorities do undermine our capabilities in terms of thought processing. We have lived with things that have a closer resemblance than what they are suggesting. Before Independence, we had church ministers but there was never any confusion when the new government adopted the same name for their heads of ministries.

I am a strong proponent of the establishment of the air force in Botswana. The obvious name for such an establishment would be Botswana Air Force (BAF). But here is a problem! We already have vehicles carrying such registrations on our roads. Will this then become an obstacle in allowing the air force to have their vehicles registered as BAF100?

I find it somewhat absurd that vehicle registration has been considered as a security risk. It is only in Botswana such can be regarded as a security risk. Our authorities have really undermined our thinking capacity in this matter. Unless they bring in a different reason for this gap in the registration system, I am half a world away from understanding their logic in this whole thing.

Because we are getting to the end of the year where there is a scramble for vehicles, from next week we are going to see B101BDP gracing our roads. I would therefore request soldiers to avoid buying and registering cars until this range is over. My advice is derived from the fact that we have to be in concert with the thinking of our leaders.

Furthermore, our soldiers should always remain politically neutral. Imagine a soldier driving a BDP registered vehicle into the camp. It would be worse than allowing civilians drive BDF registered vehicles.