13 Sep 2017

The Minister For Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration Mr Eric Molale has challenged public officers in Kweneng District to ensure timely delivery of services to communities they serve.

Addressing kgotla meeting in Lephepe recently, Minister Molale said if delivery of services was not done on time, without consultation with communities, members of the community will continue to accuse public officers of poor service delivery.

“We need to be persuasive towards helping extension workers to drive their objectives by ensuring that there are adequate resources to aid their operations,” Minister Molale said

The minister was of the view that some regular complaints of delayed service delivery in some cases were influenced by overstaying, lack of promotions and shortage of resources among others, thus making the work environment ‘extremely’ unpleasant.

“Lets work towards ensuring enabling environment for extension workers through provision of amenities suitable to help them service communities in our districts,” he said.

He also called on the district leadership to facilitate regular consultation to reduce complaints and facilitate common understanding about issues contributing to delays on certain undertakings.

Mr Molale called for action towards renovation of government institutional houses to address shortage of accommodation for public officers.

He further told the meeting about Cabinet decision to allow districts to allocate Botswana Housing Cooperation houses in their respective areas before they were vandalised also as a measure to curb accommodation shortage.

The decision he said was reached following delayed allocation of such after completion, thus leading to injection of extra funds in the project.
Minister Molale also briefed the meeting about the mandate of his ministry with emphasis on issues of governance.
He said while the country was governed through the constitution, Chapter 7 of the constitution states that Cabinet will undertake its responsibilities through public service.

He thus urged public officers to be apolitical and assist any Motswana without discrimination of party affiliation to ensure fair distribution of resources.

Minister Molale further made emphasis over the need to empower communities for the sake of improving their economic status through Economic Diversification Drive.

Lephepe Village Development Committee chairperson Mr Julius Maletwa shared with the minister achievements of VDC including electrification of houses, facilitation of an orchard at a primary school and brick moulding.

He however complained that the day care centre was failing to take off as the Molepolole Administrative Authority was delaying to carry out inspections.

For his part, Molepolole Admistrative Authority Sub Senior Assistant Council Secretary Mr Gofaone Kgabanyane regretted the delayed undertaking of the two kilometre Lephepe village access road.

He said they had initially hoped to benefit from the re-sealing of Molepolole/ Lephepe road but the scope of work has now been changed such that the project will only end at Hatsalatladi.

Residents of Lephepe requested for the supply of Diphaphata to hand-stampers at the primary school.

The minister concurred with residents and challenged office of the district commissioner and that of the council secretary in Kweneng District to device means on how they can assist them since their output was evident. ENDS