13 Jun 2016

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MOFAIC), Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, has congratulated  the recipients of the Ministry’s Excellence Awards for their demonstrated devotion to service delivery.

Dr Venson-Moitoi said this at her ministry’s awards ceremony held recently, under the theme, ‘fifty years of service to the nation; united and proud’.

“All these achievements would not have been possible without your hard work, dedication and commitment. It is your daily efforts that contribute significantly towards ensuring that Botswana lives in peace with her immediate neighbours and other countries,” she said.

She said they were the ones delivering services to the people they were entrusted to serve adding that it was through their talents that Botswana could realise her long term objectives of prosperity and sustainable development.

She however said the advent of globalisation had led to opportunities for new relationships and partnerships while also presenting a myriad of challenges.

“The array of opportunities and challenges necessitates on the one hand, the need for greater international cooperation to address common challenges towards a better, peaceful and prosperous world. On the other hand, it requires countries to have an agile and dynamic civil service that can adapt to the realities of today and thus secure and safeguard Botswana’s development interests,” she said.

She noted that she was pleased that the ministry has come a long way from the time when it was a small department under the presidency.

“Since then we have continued to work tirelessly to intensify and broaden our diplomatic engagements with the international community, and this has seen Botswana becoming an influential player in global affairs. Now that we are a fully-fledged ministry, our mandate and responsibilities have also expanded,” she stated. 

She said this was a challenge to the entire staff, to redouble their efforts and build on the achievement made so far.

“I am pleased that we continue to make meaningful contribution towards Botswana’s development agenda. Some of the achievements we have made in the past year, include the election of ‘our’ president as the Chairperson of Southern African Development Community (SADC), Botswana’s membership to the African Peace and Security Council for the period 2016-2017 and Botswana’s re-election to the United Nations Human Rights Council,” she highlighted.

Permanent secretary in the ministry, Mr Gaoimelwe Goitsemang said the theme was most appropriate and evoked introspection as the ministry contemplated forging the next steps of the country’s development journey.

“The ministry found it opportune to demonstrate its commitment to performance excellence in delivering service to Batswana by holding this ceremony,” he said. ENDS