22 Jan 2015

 Government has been requested to consider re-introducing retention incentives to attract public servants to the Ngamiland region.

Heads of departments said this during a meeting with the Maun East MP, Mr Kosta Markus. They said retaining public servants in the region was a challenge as most came to Ngamiland for higher posts and after acquiring them they went back to towns and cities.

Heads of departments said the terrain and remoteness of some areas were a challenge despite the attractiveness of the district as a tourism destination. 

Such factors, they said, had proved to be a challenge in driving some government policies and programmes. They suggested that government should explore possibilities of enticing public servants to serve in districts.The assistant director from the Department of Education, Ms Goitseone Mokgathi, said in the past when public officers enjoyed incentives they had no problem working in such areas but since they were stopped people were now reluctant. 

Ms Mokgathi raised concern that trained teachers refused to serve in remote areas and believed that incentives could be a solution.Public servants also informed the MP that it took time to replace officers who had been transferred and that affected service delivery.

They also pointed out that the region was faced with acute shortage of staff accommodation, office space, lack of transport and urged government to step up efforts to address those challenges as it affected service delivery.They said lack of a conducive working environment had demoralised officers hence the decline in productivity. 

Officers had been unable to embark on outreach programm since the transfer of maintenance of vehicles from Central Transport Organisation to ministries. They said it was very expensive to take vehicles to private garages as they charged exhorbitant prices. They added that maintenance delays resulting from financial constraints faced by ministries also contributed to low production. 

Dr Obakeng Kemolatlhe from department of Veterinary Services said the district suffered a serious blow from a series of livestock diseases such as Foot and Mouth (FMD), noting that currently they were unable to maintain the buffalo fence because there were no trucks to ferry materials.

“To service one track costs over P100 000 and some of our camps have no transport at all. People’s lives are in danger because there is no transport and communication is a challenge because of network,” he added.

He also observed that some villages such as Somelo had been without veterinarians (bakenti) for years now. He said in Okavango Sub-district, they only have two veterinarians and requested that Ngamiland should be given priority in terms of staffing and vehicle allocation to combat Foot and Mouth Disease.

For his part, acting district commissioner, Mr Keabetswe Lesiela, informed the gathering that the region was battling with a high number of student drop-outs which in most cases were caused by lack of parental care and pregnancy.  He urged parents to be proactive in the education of their children and to always guide them. He also revealed that the district experienced low academic performance in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) because parents were neglecting their children’s studies.

Mr Lesiela urged political representatives to sensitise the communities about the importance of their children’s education. He said education had become inseparable from development of human capital hence its importance could not be overemphasised. ENDS