BDF new salary divides the army

The Monitor can reveal that hardly a month after the implementation of the new salary structure at the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) there is already a move to scupper it and replace it with a special allowance, to avoid a messy situation that has risen, whereby some private officers now earn as much as some lieutenant colonel officers.

The new pay structure came into effect this last month and was backdated to April 2012, resulting in the beneficiaries raking back pays which have seen some cashing as much as P60,000 in back pays this just ended month.However, the BDF has refused to reveal how many soldiers are benefitting from the new exercise or how much they have budgeted for except to say the exercise is within budget. The BDF also say this is not a promotion but a simple re-alignment of the BDF pay structure with the rest of the public service.