21 Aug 2016

Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration Mr Dikgang Makgalemele has urged Mahalapye Sub- district leadership to empower the youth.

Mr Makgalemele, who was addressing them on August 15, said it was not only the responsibility of the Ministry Youth, Sport and Culture to empower the youth but all departments.

He said it was the responsibility of all ministries and departments to demonstrate their contribution at district level on how they assist the youth especially in job creation as this could also help the government curb unemployment.

The assistant minister said government departments should also empower communities they serve to enable them graduate from the ipelegeng programme. 

He noted that as public officers they should motivate and assist the public to take other government programmes and initiatives, noting that there was life after ipelegeng.

Mr Makgalemele said the government was trying by all means to eradicate abject poverty amongst Batswana.

On other issues, Mr Makgalemele urged public officers to enhance service delivery, adding that as the mouth piece of government they should adhere to the customer service standards and the ten point’s agenda.

 He said they should show commitment towards their work and assist people on time, noting that the public complains that when they visit government officers they are informed that the system was down.

He also advised them to publicly display public service  standards so that people should know how long they should wait to get services, adding that they should always be provided with customer feedback forms.

Further, the assistant minister informed them that it was their duty as leaders to inform, guide and communicate to their subordinates about their benefits as public officers.

He said usually some officers do not know the mandate of their departments, adding that as supervisors they should also reinforce government initiative that every public officer should have name tags.

Mr Makgalemele said tax payers’ money was used to make those name tags and it was a requirement that all public officers should wear them at all time, adding that it was also for the benefit of the people they serve.

For his part, Mahalapye Sub -district commisioner, Mr Bakuedi Masole spoke of some offices which breached the Public Service Act regarding working over time. According to him, the offices would neither get over time payment nor off days. And this, he said was really worrisome as it occurs across all government departments and this often brings confusion and in some cases demoralises employees.

 On the ten point agenda, Mr Masole explained that in Mahalapye Sub -district, they were doing all they could to serve the public diligently and meet the set standards, adding that to date their overall performance was satisfactory.

However, he cited as a challenge that some members of the public refuse to fill the feedback forms. Ends