01 Jun 2016

With the country set to celebrate 50 years of independence, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning saw it fit to invite the second President of Botswana, Sir Ketumile Masire for the ministry’s award giving ceremony to its employees.

The former president is the founding minister of the ministry for which he held the position for 14 years before leaving it to become president in 1980.

When giving a word of encouragement to employees that were being awarded, Sir Ketumile said he was honoured and privileged to have been invited to interact with employees of the ministry.

“It was indeed a pleasant surprise to be remembered by the ministry at which I was minister for 14 years and this invitation has brought back good memories that one can talk about as Botswana celebrates 50 years of Independence,” he said.

He said the aim was to celebrate the people who had contributed to the public service and the culture that had built up the public service to be what it was and continued to be.

Sir Ketumile further said since 1965, the ministry of finance existed with a development unit in it and this remained for a while, but it was then thought it might be much better if the ministry of development could exist in its own right.
“We however quickly realised that ministries were better under one roof, hence the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning was established in 1970,” he said.

Speaking on some of the events that are worth remembering, Sir Ketumile said in 1972 the country achieved financial independence.

“Achieving financial independence made us elated because we had feared that we would be a burden on the British for many years to come,” he indicated.
He said August 23, 1976 is another notable date as this was when Botswana introduced its national currency of Pula and Thebe.

“The Pula and Thebe names were given by members of the public in an open competition and now we could manage to do things on our own instead of looking to South Africa to determine what to do,” he said.

“I remember one incident as Minister of Finance when I went to a bank and found it closed because South Africa had their own problems. So having our own currency gave us national pride,” he said with a chuckle.
Sir Ketumile encouraged employees of the ministry to continue upholding the best practices and standards that come with working for such a ministry.

He said Botswana should not fall into the trap of being another African country and conforming to what a typical African state is like; unaccountable.

“Minister Kenneth Matambo should continue upholding the best standards and show the rest of the world that Africans can be trustworthy too,” he said.

For his part, Mr Matambo said the performance and service awards ceremony was to celebrate the staff who had excelled and secondly that the country would be celebrating its 50 years.

“The theme for this year’s Public Service celebration is 50 years of service to the nation: United and Proud and since we attained independence, this country has been enjoying a stable economic environment,” he said.
Mr Matambo further said this is a result of the visionary leadership and persistent hard work and dedication of the people tasked with the job at hand.

“With regard to leadership, I wish to take this opportunity to recognise with high regard our second President Sir Ketumile Masire, the founding Minister of Finance and Development Planning and one of the architects of the solid foundation upon which the success of this nation is based,” he said.

He indicated that since 1970 the ministry had gone through a number of restricting exercises to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of its mandate.

“We have encountered some challenges along the way as we strived to achieve our intended purpose, but because of your determination for better results, we succeeded in overcoming many of these challenges,” he said.
He said his ministry’s strength lies in building relationships with others through serving their customers and stakeholders in an open and transparent manner as well as being accountable for our actions at all times.

“Our notable success is premised among others on developing the human resources into well trained, motivated, hardworking, productive and committed workforce,” he said.
Mr Matambo further said such ceremonies offered the ministry an opportunity to reflect on its work, strengths, weaknesses, shortcomings and opportunities for the future. Ends