The two states were hostile to the fledgling sovereign Botswana. All Batswana knew it, the entire world knew it. Botswana had no army to defend herself against the impending hostility across her borders; nevertheless, she believed her foremost priority was to consolidate her Independence in priority areas: education, health and general social welfare. It wasn’t until 11 years into Independence that the ruling BDP succumbed to the nagging by the opposition Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) leader, the late Hon PG Matante to form the Botswana Defence Force (BDF), at least to show intent to resist, if shove came to push.
The army wasn’t priority but symbolic, in the resistance to external aggression and bully politics. There were bigger and more urgent priorities; moreover it was unaffordable. The budget there was insufficient even for recurrent expenditures, primarily civil servants’ salaries - understandable. The opposition wasn’t wrong either; faced with the imminent hostile environment, the opposition feared the Independence project was in jeopardy and could be snuffed out in its infancy without a whimper in theory or in action. The formation of the BDF in 1977 was a good strategy to draw attention to the vulnerability of the newly-independent Botswana to the rogue states encircling her; Lesoma massacre of 15 new recruits ambushed by Ian Smith forces was a wake-up call to the community of nations, that the apartheid duo of South Africa and white Rhodesia required close monitoring, lest it imperilled the UN de-colonisation project.
