Major General Simon Motswana Barwabatsile is the Chief of Army Staff and Joint Force Commander for the Botswana Defence Force (BDF). He joined the BDF in March 1989 and rose through the ranks to become an Armoured Unit Commander. In 2015, he was promoted to Brigadier as Armoured Brigade Group Commander. He was appointed Major General in September 2023 and assumed his current commands in the BDF at that time. He participated in the 1993 US-led humanitarian operation in Somalia, called Restore Hope, and he participated in the Southern African Development Community mission in Mozambique between February and November 2022 as Deputy Force Commander, Acting Force Commander and Acting Head of Mission. General Barwabatsile.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What is your first priority as Chief of Staff of the Army?
I think what is important, first of all, is to invest in human resources. Human capital is our key capability. In terms of professional military education and training, we have to invest in them, develop all the necessary skills that concern the capability of the land forces: specialists, infantry, armour, artillery, air defence, and then the specialisations such as engineers, reconnaissance capabilities. We have to develop them to the cutting edge so that they can work together.
Then, developing the capabilities of combat-ready units and then equipping them properly starting with the individual soldier, particularly individual force protection because, as you know, the contemporary operating environment is infested with lethal assets, particularly those related to terrorism. We must have force protection at both the individual level and the unit level.
What steps have you taken so far to pursue these priorities?
I think I can say that, thanks to my predecessors, they have already started working in some of these areas, and it is now up to me to continue their work. Even as we speak, we have efforts underway for the training of specialists, so we need to perfect that and then move on to developing teams, combat-ready teams, combat-ready units, that can fight effectively together.
Several years ago, as a Brigadier General, you oversaw anti-poaching operations in Botswana. What is the current situation of poaching and wildlife crime in Botswana, and what is the BDF doing to combat it?
Throughout the country, we have centres where inter-agency coordination teams are located, working together, sharing information in the shortest possible time. And we have not only done that in the country; we have also developed collaboration, cooperation and relationships with neighbouring states, to the point where we are able to share information easily, in the shortest possible time. When it comes to the problem of poaching, time is of the essence. If you hear an intention to go to the targeted areas in a timely manner, you can intervene. And we are getting that, particularly from neighbouring countries that are facing the same challenge.
You were the deputy commander of the Southern African Development Community mission in Mozambique, called SAMIM. What did you learn in that role that can help you today as the BDF Chief of Army Staff?
Since these are now operational issues, I think it is a good thing that I am becoming the Joint Force Commander at the same time as I am assuming command of the Army Staff. And I was the Chief of Staff to the Joint Force Commander as a Brigadier General. I was involved in the initial preparation and the projection of forces in SAMIM. It was the preparation that was critical. We can all agree that there is a need to mechanize to ensure that force protection is guaranteed in the theatre. With all the forces that we have deployed, we have ensured that they are moving forward with protected vehicles, and protected vehicles are critical in that effort.
I think now, having spent time in theater, I have noted the fact that multinational collaboration, cooperation, even before you go into theater, is absolutely critical. We have to find ways and methods of constant training, in exercises, through education. Our soldiers, our land forces, should be working with other land forces to prepare for the defense and security of our region. I think the other thing that we have also noted is our professional military education institutions such as the staff colleges. We have to develop them in terms of exchange students, we have to develop them in terms of exercises, joint exercises, because when we talk about a staff college, the officer that comes out of it is the key planner. When you talk about majors, they are key planners at the brigade level and they are most certainly going to go into theater. They need to be prepared for that multinational engagement.
In the future, the technology gap is also becoming apparent. We need to make the theatre transparent in terms of what we see, what we detect. And we need to invest in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability. The threat we face is elusive but when they lose touch with the communities, we should be able to detect them and be able to target them when they come out. And that can only be done with good ISR and good technology.
Building on the capacity to work in communities in terms of civil-military cooperation, building on that. We have to work hard to make sure that we are prepared to conduct civil-military operations when we are deployed on operations. They will then be able to see us as partners and even give us information voluntarily, without having to solicit it, about what is happening within the community in terms of security threats.
Botswana has for many years been a nation at peace, internally and with its neighbours. What are the practices or philosophies that have allowed Botswana to remain at peace for so long in an often volatile region?
I think it is a political issue. But as an armed force, we must be as professional as possible in the provision of security, which is our sovereign responsibility and our obligation as a military institution. Discipline and professionalism must be the guiding principles of our forces. I think the quality of security depends on who is providing it.
As Commander of the BDF Army, how do you assess the level of cooperation from your regional partners? To what extent is this cooperation essential to regional security?
I think the fact that they agreed to undertake the mission [of SAMIM] and the fact that the host country agreed to accept the mission, that in itself demonstrates that there is cooperation. Unfortunately, we cannot contribute to the same extent, because we face different challenges. One thing to note is that we carried out the mission in the shadow of Covid-19, which has severely damaged our economies, and to me any contribution is enough. There are countries that contributed with forces. There are countries that contributed with resources. There are countries that contributed only with staff officers, not standby forces or trained forces, and there are countries that contributed with intelligence assistance, and those who contributed morally. I think they all contributed. If you look at the number of actors, it is more than 50% of the members. For me, it is a success for a first mission of this type.
We live in a world that is constantly evolving technologically. How does the BDF leverage military technology in its training and during deployment?
I think we are working towards that. Our effort is to have a small but agile and effective operational force, and that can only be achieved by mastering technology. There is no other way to do it and we have to continue to move in that direction. In the current operation that we were talking about, although we had combat troops, we also had the ISR capability which was an enabler and a force multiplier because it gave us the necessary intelligence and reconnaissance, the necessary detection that we needed. These are some of the areas that we have tried to master with technology, and I believe we will continue to do so, particularly in the area of drones/UAVs technology, you can fill those gaps.
What do you envision for the future of the BDF Army? What do you see over the next few years for your force?
Brigades are fundamental, they are the foundation of the army. And it is those that have been engaged that we must crystallize and equip. We cannot equip them completely but we should equip them to the level of their capabilities, and we can create capabilities that may require national or multinational companies. We should be able to prepare for that.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I think what I can add is just the need to ensure that we have professionalism in all these spheres, all these spheres within the Army, and to ensure force protection. Force protection is crucial because, given the experience of SAMIM, without force protection in terms of the equipment that we give to our soldiers, we could have lost more than what we lost. Because there was force protection, we were able to save lives.