{"id":10847,"date":"2022-07-25T13:09:29","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T13:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/bdf-officers-fired-over-refusal-to-take-covid-19-vaccine"},"modified":"2022-07-25T14:25:48","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T14:25:48","slug":"bdf-officers-fired-over-refusal-to-take-covid-19-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/bdf-officers-fired-over-refusal-to-take-covid-19-vaccine","title":{"rendered":"BDF officers fired over refusal to take Covid-19 vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>An undisclosed number of Botswana Defence Force officers and staff members have been fired for not getting vaccinated against COVID-19, as mandated by the BDF Act.<\/b><\/p>\n

A number of soldiers who pleaded religious objection to the Covid-19 vaccine among them a lawyer have been fired for refusing to take the jab.<\/p>\n

The press has turned up information that under a mandate set by the army command BDF officers and staff members were given until June 2022 to show proof of vaccination or they would face termination.<\/p>\n

Reports indicate that some of the officers and staff members had objected to the mandatory vaccination on medical grounds. While the army considered some of the applications and exempted the applicants from mandatory vaccination, those who claimed that they did not want to be vaccinated on religious grounds had their applications rejected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who objected on medical grounds were referred for further medical examination while those who objected on religious grounds were shown the door,\u201d sources said.<\/p>\n

The army is said to have developed a mandatory vaccination policy because it was of the view that its officers were aware of a section in the BDF Act that lays out the basis for mandatory vaccination.<\/p>\n

Asked to comment, the army was non-committal. \u201cThe Botswana Defence Force acknowledges receipt of your enquiry wherein among other you enquire about the mandatory COVID 19 vaccination of service members in the BDF and whether any member has been dismissed from the Force on the basis of their refusal to vaccinate,\u201d BDF spokesperson Stephen Moshagane stated.<\/p>\n

He added that, \u201cplease note that issues of staff separations under any conditions remain internal and purely administrative and cannot be discussed with the media or any third party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moshagane explained that, \u201cNotwithstanding that, in accordance with Section 143 of the BDF Act, 2018 all uniformed members of the BDF are by law required to vaccinate when required to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny disregard of this section by a serving member of the BDF who is subject to the BDF Act constitutes an offence against the Act which may be tried accordingly,\u201d he said. Sources indicated that this position was communicated orally to service members in the army. \u201cMajority of those who were affected are those that had cited religious beliefs as the basis for exception.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. An undisclosed number of Botswana Defence Force officers and staff members have been fired for not getting vaccinated against COVID-19, as mandated by the BDF Act. A number of soldiers who pleaded religious objection to the Covid-19 vaccine among them a lawyer have been fired for refusing to take the jab. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":10846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,12,13,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-10847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-social","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nBDF officers fired over refusal to take Covid-19 vaccine - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An undisclosed number of Botswana Defence Force officers and staff members have been fired for not getting vaccinated ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/bdf-officers-fired-over-refusal-to-take-covid-19-vaccine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BDF officers fired over refusal to take Covid-19 vaccine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An undisclosed number of Botswana Defence Force officers and staff members have been fired for not getting vaccinated ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/bdf-officers-fired-over-refusal-to-take-covid-19-vaccine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-25T13:09:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-25T14:25:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_1-62dea799a0542.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"464\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/bdf-officers-fired-over-refusal-to-take-covid-19-vaccine#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/bdf-officers-fired-over-refusal-to-take-covid-19-vaccine\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"BDF officers fired over refusal to take Covid-19 vaccine\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-25T13:09:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-25T14:25:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/bdf-officers-fired-over-refusal-to-take-covid-19-vaccine\"},\"wordCount\":398,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/bdf-officers-fired-over-refusal-to-take-covid-19-vaccine#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/07\/postQueueImg_1-62dea799a0542.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"Social\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/bdf-officers-fired-over-refusal-to-take-covid-19-vaccine#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/bdf-officers-fired-over-refusal-to-take-covid-19-vaccine\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/bdf-officers-fired-over-refusal-to-take-covid-19-vaccine\",\"name\":\"BDF officers fired over refusal to take Covid-19 vaccine - 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