15 Feb 2022

Botswana Defence Force (BDF) has called factually incorrect a post circulating on social media attributed to Mail Online headlined: “Shock as Masisi appoints a Brigadier who never attended War College”.

In a media release, BDF says the post must be regarded as falsehood with the malicious intent to mislead and portray the said brigadier as not worthy of a promotion.

The post insinuates that there is favouritism on the part of the BDF commander since he recommended to the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, the appointment and promotion of one brigadier purported not to have attended war college and therefore not meritorious.

It says contrary to the baseless claims contained in the post, the said brigadier is a 2014 alumnus of the People’s Liberation Army National Defence University, Beijing, China.

BDF says according to its officers regulations, promotion to any rank higher than that of major is  by selection.

In pursuit of the requirement, a promotion board is appointed to undertake the selection process and make recommendations to the BDF commander and subsequently to the commander in chief in line with the BDF Act.

BDF expresses concern that the unsubstantiated claims have the propensity to mislead the public and tarnish the image of the BDF commander and the army.
 

The release  states that the rebuttal does not preclude those mentioned in the post to seek legal recourse should they desire. Ends