17 Feb 2016

Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu, has acknowledged the acute staff shortage that his departments are facing in the nine districts that result in affecting proper service delivery to the public.

“As a result, my ministry has started engagement with the Directorate of Public Service Management to explore possibilities of creating additional posts through rationalisation of existing ministry posts with the view to capacitate the departments,” he said.In addition, he said the planned interventions include decentralisation of assessment and adjudication of proposals to districts to reduce delays in funds disbursement.

Mr Batshu said when answering a question from Member of Parliament for Kgalagadi North, Mr Itumeleng Moipisi who wanted to know if the minister was aware that there was only one Gender Office based in Tsabong under the Department of Gender Affairs servicing the entire Kgalagadi District; and if is so, the minister should state whether the shortage of staff did not contribute negatively to the implementation of the Poverty Eradication Programme in the already poverty stricken district.

The Ministry explained that the Gender Affairs Department based in Tsabong has two Programme Officers based in Tsabong, being senior gender officer and gender officer, adding that a procurement officer was appointed on October 22,  2015. Ends