02 Mar 2015

The acting Minister of Agriculture, Mr Patrick Ralotsia has advised employees to deliver excellent service in spite of prevailing challenges in the work place.

The acting minister said this while addressing a staff meeting in Kasane on February 27.  “I have come to discuss our positives and our negatives, which impede service delivery, but I want to encourage you to deliver in spite of impossibilities and reasons which may tell us otherwise,” he said.

Mr Ralotsia noted that as a ministry, they were proud of Chobe because it was the best district in terms of efficiency in production countrywide. 

However, he noted that they received a lot of complaints about LIMID because some of their officers told their customers that funds for the programme were exhausted without consulting first with their seniors. 

In his briefing, the District Agricultural Coordinator Mr Rapelang Sebadieta said that 32 694 hectares of land was ploughed in the district with 30 309 of those belonging to commercial farmers. 

This year, he noted that there had been an increase in cow peas, which he attributed to a good price offered by Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB). 

Mr Sebadieta also noted that his ministry had 29 vehicles that were operational, with an additional seven that needed repairs.

One of the employees, an Agronomy officer in Pandamatenga, Mr Michael Matsila complained about the time taken when applying for per diem to travel to neighbouring countries to attend to emergencies such as Quelea birds. 

“We spend so much time travelling to Gaborone to apply for per diem and then travel back here to attend to Quelea birds, which in the meantime wreak havoc on our farmers’ sorghum,” he noted.

Mr Matsila suggested that per diem should be decentralized and applied for at places of work of applicants to save time and harvests.

He added that this year flocks of Quelea birds had been spotted around Pandamatenga, which means there will be a lot of them on the 15 000 hectares of sorghum this year. 

With the rising interest in cow peas, sorghum production has gone down from 20 000 hectares to 15 000 hectares this year.  Other employees, especially former industrial class ones, complained of not being accorded respect by their supervisors in the work place and the lack of progression. 

One employee from Satau, Ms Mbura Sinvula complained of using open vans when travelling to official meetings, something which she said was demeaning and inconvenient.  “Even during rainy days, we sit at the back of land cruisers soaking under the rain,” she noted. 

Another employer, Mr Kachenje Matengu said that his life was in danger as he has to use ablutions located outside his house at Ngoma gate, yet the place has a lot of wild and dangerous animals. 

In answering some of the complaints, the acting Deputy Permanent Secretary (DPS), Dr Pharoah Mosupi advised that ablutions must be indoors for Ngoma gate houses as that was a life threatening issue. 

He asked for quotations to be sought in that respect, and, concerning progression, Dr Mosupi said that government had no intentions of replacing any former industrial class post when the post becomes vacant. 

“Even this week, the President was complaining that the government wage bill is still very high and one of the ways of reducing it is by dissolving some of the vacant former industrial posts so we do not want to give you false hopes on this issue,” he said.

On employees being transported at the back of vans, Mr Sebadieta said he was not aware of it but noted that that would be sorted out as the ministry had a mini bus that could be used in such cases. He added that some of the complaints raised were never brought to his attention. 

Minister Ralotsia promised to look into the per diem matter but noted that some of the issues raised showed that the ministry did not hold regular staff meetings to resolve matters. ENDS