SONA and Botswana’s national security concerns

On Monday November 14, 2022 the President of the Republic of Botswana, His Excellency Mokgweetsi Masisi gave a State of the Nation Address (SONA) at the Parliament buildings where he touched on a number of socio- economic and political issues. The address by the President was anchored on some main themes namely Sustainable Economic Development, Human and Social Development, Sustainable Environment, Governance, Peace and Security and International Relations. It is within the context of Governance, Peace and Security that this piece shall attempt to respond to the State of the Nation Address. This is because the national security threats facing Botswana have become so complex in recent years that these kinds of threats need some serious introspection from the political leadership and the right strategic interventions in order to mitigate them.

On peace and security, President Masisi only stated that Botswana has strengthened her legislation and institutions to ensure that Botswana will never be grey listed again. In 2020 Botswana was grey listed by the European Union as one of those countries with very weak anti-money laundering regimes that risked the country becoming a hub for terrorism financing. The president stated that as a measure to close those gaps, parliament has passed 17 bills and Acts that were meant to effect the recommendations of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

In addition he posited that recently Botswana launched the National Risk Assessment for mutual evaluation scheduled for 2024/25 financial year. The risk assessment is a peer review mechanism that measures a country’s compliance with money laundering laws. The president also expressed pleasure that Botswana has assumed the presidency of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group. He reminded the nation that assuming the presidency of ESAAMLG through the Minister of Finance, Peggy Serame, is not a small feat as this takes leadership commitment to marshal the whole Eastern and Southern African Region to implement anti-money laundering standards. Even though the Botswana government may be commended for having managed to escape the socio-economic repercussions of a possible black listing by the EU, it is very important that the SONA must also have addressed some other national security threats and how Botswana was going to deal with them.

Transnational Organised Crime has proved over the past few years that it has become a serious national security threat facing Botswana especially the proliferation of small arms and light weapons that have consistently been used to carry out armed robberies across Botswana and also used in gender- based violence. Besides the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, Botswana is impacted by other organised criminal activities such as human trafficking, trafficking in drugs, trafficking in counterfeit products and illicit exchange in foreign currency, etc. These security threats impact adversely on human security in complex ways thus their complexity requires a strategic response from the political leadership especially during a state of nation address to reassure citizens on the importance of public safety.

I wrongly thought SONA was going to address the need for Botswana to establish a National Security Strategy. Faced with a plethora of security threats such as the ones already mentioned, it is important for Botswana to come up with a National Security Strategy that can go a long way in protecting her citizens and critical infrastructures at home. A National Security Strategy if well implemented can go a long way in providing a unified national strategy for legitimate defense and public security provision.

This is because this kind of strategy explains how a nation defines security and safety and how it intends to achieve it. In this sense, the strategy will work towards ensuring the protection of our nation’s fundamental and enduring needs, that is protect the lives and safety of Batswana, maintain the sovereignty of Botswana with its values, institutions and territory and promote the prosperity and well-being of the nation and its people.

Within the framework of a National Security Strategy, the Masisi Administration should also realise the need to establish a National Inter-Agency Collaboration Centre because modern security challenges threats that Botswana faces demand close cooperation across all levels of government and across a wide range of security agencies.

For Botswana to effectively protect her citizens against a plethora of complex security threats requires some close collaboration between security agencies such as the BDF, DIS, BURS, DCEC, Police, Immigration, Wildlife Department and the Private Security Industry. Forging these new structures and relationships through the establishment of a National Inter-Agency Collaboration Centre will be challenging but it must be done if our country is to ensure public safety and avoid vulnerabilities that those criminal elements might try to exploit in order put the citizens in danger.

As inter-agency collaboration is concerned with the act of promoting an active working relationship among multiple security agencies with a view of improving process outcomes at a reduced cost, a National Inter-Agency Centre manned by various agencies in the security field such as the DIS, BDF, DCEC, POLICE, DPP, experts in criminal justice, counter-terrorism, strategic studies and cybercrime is what we need as a nation where not only limited resources will be shared, but also technical expertise on how to strategically mitigate emerging security threats.

Botswana can draw lessons from the US as the 911 Commission observed that the US government’s single greatest failure preceding the September 11, 2001 attacks was the inability of federal agencies to effectively share information about suspected terrorists and their activities. After the US established inter-agency collaboration post911, the success of such collaborative efforts are visible as no external terrorist group has carried out any attack on US soil.

It is therefore upon this that inter-agency collaboration between security agencies and related experts can succeed in fighting against threats such as organised crime and financing of terrorism as they will be able to collaboratively gather intelligence, analyse it and share it amongst themselves before deciding on an effective plan of action. Furthermore, the centre may engage in research on various security trends and come up with informed strategies on mitigating national security threats facing Botswana.

Collaboration between security agencies under the framework of a National Security Strategy and guided by a strong National Security Policy is one of the ways in which Botswana can go a long way in effectively addressing some security threats facing our nation especially organised crime and threat of terrorism as well as its financing. These are issues that I am of a strong view that the President should have addressed during his SONA in addition to his contribution on the theme on Governance, Peace and Security.