The Ministry of Defence,Justice and Securitywishes to respond to anarticle published in The VoiceNewspaper dated 26 July 2013,titled ‘Soldiers threaten BDFwith mass resignations’ authoredby one Daniel Chida.It was stated that ‘the Voiceinvestigations have revealedthat the 2000 offi cers betweenthe ranks of Private and Corporalacross the country tenderedtheir resignation letters the secondweek of July’ this year.
TheMinistry would like to inform thegeneral public that the BotswanaDefence Force (BDF) did notreceive such resignation lettersin protest to low pay and lack ofpromotion as purported by the paper.The Ministry would furtherlike to reiterate the position takenby the Botswana Defence Forcewhen they were approached bythe Voice; that is resignations aresmall and insignifi cant in number.The Ministry is also of the viewthat promotions are not a matterof routine or automatic in nature,but that candidates are subjectto pre-conditions much like anyother organization that makesconsiderations for promotions.
The Ministry of Defence, Justiceand Security takes the workingconditions of its staff seriously,and continues to do all that ispossible to ensure that such conditionsare maintained, enhancedand acceptable. It is unfortunatethat the Voice Newspaper choseto announce mass resignations asfact at the risk of causing publicunrest or driving other agenda’saimed at causing disorder. Wecontinue to call on the mediato conduct thorough research,cross-check information, and reportobjectively whilst keepingthe best interests of the generalpublic in mind prior to publishingarticles.