15 Jun 2016

Executive director of Business Botswana, Mr Lekwalo Mosienyane says research and development allows companies to gain market share.

Speaking at the Public Service Convention panel discussion, Mr Mosienyane said it was not possible that government on its own could achieve necessary requirements hence the need for a tripartite agreement between government, academia and the private sector.

He said government should create policies that stipulated research and development in the country in the field of education and other sectors. Such policies, he added should allow innovations to be patented at the same time espousing innovations from the industry.

Mr Mosienyane noted that leaders must not shy away from inviting foreign investors and instead of benchmarking, government must collaborate with organisations that offer crucial learning, knowledge transfer and instill a notion of cross fertilisation of ideas.

Director of National Strategy Office (NSO), Mr Uttom Corea said when Botswana attained independence it started with a complement of 275 employees and 50 years later it now has more than 150 000 employees.

He said at the present moment, the government cannot operate using the same system that served 275 employees saying ‘as time changes the system should also change’.

Mr Corea emphasised the importance of technology, adding that resistance to change hampers development, adding that ‘what drives change is innovations’. 

A retired civil servant, Mr Ishmael Selebogo said public servants have to deliver for the economy to survive.

Mr Selebogo said when he joined the civil service way back, at C3 salary scale, he used to earn around R43.00 and with such an amount of money they could afford everything they wanted in life.

BOPEU president, Mr Andrew Motsamai said that there was no dispute that Botswana had made a tremendous strides in many sectors of the economy and that the public sector had been the mainstay of the country’s economy.

Mr Motsamai said that corruption must not be condoned at all cost adding that effective service delivery could only be achieved by unity and productivity, adding that  if the country does not modernise the public sector jobs would be all taken by machinery.

Executive director of Botswana National Productivity Centre, Mr Baeti Molake described the public sector as the facilitator, regulator, employer and the service provider hence the need to enjoy the outcome of the service they provide.

He encouraged them to be innovative in order to improve internal efficiency and do away with the fear of failure by allowing employees to experiment and at the same time departing from the fear of departing from the norm. ENDS