20 Mar 2016

The Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Frans Van Der Westhuizen, says government is striving towards improving workers' welfare.

Addressing employees of his ministry in Jwaneng on March 17, he noted that government was committed to fulfilling its part of the contract of employment by attending to employees’ welfare, hence the deployment of management at district level.

He said as the staff of his ministry based in Jwaneng, they were part of a chain which had a mandate to provide quality service to the public, so their welfare is of utmost importance.  He said failure to address staff welfare would ultimately result in the ministry as a whole failing to deliver on its mandate. However, the assistant minister noted that despite the government’s efforts to improve staff welfare, there were still some shortfalls, some of which resulted from shortage of funds. 

He said these challenges should not discourage them to advise the government, provided their expectations were possible to reach.

“We have a responsibility to account for tax payers’ money, and this means working together and putting all our efforts to give quality service to the public,” he said.

A physical planner at Jwaneng Town Council Mr Brain Joel said as employees they acknowledge the current economic situation as well as the efforts made by government. 

However, he said welfare issues should also include young people engaged in programmes such as Tirelo Setshaba, National Internship and Government Voluntary Scheme.

He said the government should come up with strategies to ensure that after gaining the necessary experience, these young people are absorbed into the public service so that they could be able to sustain their livelihoods.

Another employee, Mr Tiroyaone Rmolefe said all employees working at the council abattoir had been receiving abattoir allowance since time immemorial, but such benefits were ceased last year. 

He said they did not get a clear answer as to why such an allowance was cancelled all of a sudden.

Responding to employees comments, Mr Van Der Westhuizen explained that the Botswana civil service was huge hence the government had taken a decision not to increase it any further since the wage bill was taking a large chunk of the budget.

He said as it was impossible for the government to absorb all graduates into its system, young people were encouraged to register for such programmes so that they could be hired in case there were vacant posts. 

He noted that the high unemployment rate was a concern to government, and these programmes were intended to keep young people busy and for them to gain experience.

“We do acknowledge that what they are getting is not enough to sustain them, but historically our civil service is big and this has put the government in a tight corner,” he noted. The assistant minister noted that some of the issues they were raising could not be acceded to at the moment due to financial constraints. 

He, however, advised them to include their requests in the District Development Plan since the National Development Plan should be informed by the grassroots from district level.  

“Make sure you arrange them in order of priority so that when there are funds they could be attended to,” he said. Ends