From boys to men

Richard Moleofe | Friday April 21, 2017 18:16

BDF was pitted against a mighty army by all measure and standards. All our neighbours regarded our military as a boys’ scout group because of the weapons that were in use. Over the four decades, BDF has been slowly inching forward in professionalism. This has been through training of personnel and the procurement of weapons. Further to that, our defence force has in a lot of cases developed state of the art facilities.

Who would have thought that by the turn of the century Botswana would be having a state of the art airbase? Thebephatshwa Airbase (TAB)stands out to be second best in Africa after the one in Egypt. TAB was a worthwhile investment and it caused a lot of rumblings in the region when it was built in the 1990s. Even South Africa which is the military powerhouse of Sub-Saharan Africa can only envy Botswana’s achievements.

BDF has started from very humble beginnings. For most young officers who are now serving, the stories about how BDF used to operate with such merger resources only sounds like telltales. Soldiers were required to buy their own food when they went on trip. The trips were so long and often extended according to the need and the situation at the border.

One of the soldiers who served at the time says when he was a young private he mistakenly purchased tinned dog food. He continued enjoying this until halfway through the trip when one of his colleagues came to notice that he had seen the same food fed to Brigadier Khama’s dogs. He dug a deep whole and buried his dog rations.

As late as the 1990s, soldiers were enjoying free food but were required to purchase their own meat. And they had to be creative while on trip in the border areas. A group of soldiers who were tasked with purchasing a beast from the local farmers in Parakarungu did the unthinkable. They approached a farmer with a large beast that he was selling. The price of the ox was P700 even though the soldiers only had P600. So they asked the farmer to look at his ox through inverted pair of binoculars and that made it look dismally small.

Then they showed him a smaller ox through the lens when it was not inverted and of course the beast was enlarged. They told the farmer that the pair of binoculars was a Government machine for checking cattle disease. The poor farmer was quick to suggest that the soldiers should only pay P400 because he had witnessed that his beast was not in good health.

The short of this long story is that we have had people who made personal sacrifices to get our borders secured. The soldier of today would not understand how it was a requirement then for one to provide their own rations while on Government duty.

The celebrations should recognise the relentless efforts made by those whose purpose and total intention was to pave a way for today’s modern military. There are countless of such individuals who made unselfish contributions so that we can have the modern military that this country can now boast of without hesitation.

Last week I recognised the founder officers (FOM) who have all now gone into retirement. But there is a group of officers that stands between the past and modernity. This group of officers comes from Serial 9 of 1990. A group that I am so proud to be a part of even though I have now laid down my arms in retirement.

Several in this group are now lieutenant colonels or above except for the unlucky few. They are the decision makers for the organisation. They stand between the top brass and the lower echelons of leadership. They are the movers and the shakers of this military establishment.

I like to call this group the Pioneers. This is the first group of Officer Cadets to be trained at Paje. A military academy with no name as though it’s a Pick’n Pay product for low income earners.

They inherited a camp formerly used by the South Korean company that constructed the road between Serowe and Orapa. This was a basic and rudimentary facility and not fitting the purpose for a military college. They transformed it with their own hands. Other groups that followed found it in such pristine condition like a beach side hotel.

BDF needs to recognise its institutional ancestors. It’s a pity that they are doing all the fanfare without the BDF’s first four pilots who are still alive though they are all in retirement. Lt Gen Masire, Brig Scheffers, Col. Rakgole and Col. Seduke. These are the pioneers of military aviation in Botswana.

Brig Kgokgothwane and Lt. Col. Pilane are the pioneers of parachuting in BDF and Commando. Maj Modisenyane who was a product of the former became BDF’s first to have a Special Forces qualification from the US Army.

Officers are not the only achievers at BDF, the list of non-commissioned officers who have done heroic deeds for the organisation and for our country is not exhaustive. In an event such as the 40th celebrations, they should have been called out of retirement to be part of the party.

They should be part of a match past at the national Stadium. BDF remains to be a great organisation. It was built on the bloodshed by many who believed in the course of freedom for us all. Therefore no one should be allowed to own and personalise this great institution.

The foundations of this military institution were laid by people with little or no education. But they were armed with so much wisdom. This is one commodity that seems to be fading from the organisation. It has been replaced by self serving interests and a great deal of bootlicking.