This was revealed by Minister of State President, Defence and Security, Moeti Mohwasa last Thursday when updating on the BDF pensions. He explained to Members of Parliament that the longstanding issue dates back to 2001 when the military transitioned from a Defined Benefit Scheme to a Defined Contribution Fund to align with the then recently established Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF). The transition, which shifted the retirement structure, also triggered long-running legal battles and class-action lawsuits regarding transfer values and benefit calculations Last week, Mohwasa revealed that a government-commissioned actuarial study conducted in 2017 found that the pension arrangement had disadvantaged BDF personnel as it failed to adequately take into account their mandatory early retirement.
He said the study established that the pension denominator applicable to BDF members should have been adjusted from n/600 to n/375, in line with the adjustment made to the public service pension denominator from n/720 to n/450 in 1998. The lower the denominator, the higher the pension benefit and in March 2024, government consequently resolved to enhance the transfer values of BDF members who were in service before April 1, 2001. Statutory Instruments 52 and 53 of 2024 were subsequently issued to facilitate the payment, backdated to January 1998.
