18 Oct 2017

The judiciary, as another arm of government, is a key stakeholder in the realisation and attainment of the national goals.
Welcoming participants at the start of a three-day workshop on Tuesday to formulate the development strategy of the Administration Of Justice (AOJ), Justice Michael Leburu of the Lobatse High Court explained that the Administration Of Justice (AOJ) was therefore key within the said value chain.

Justice Lesetedi, who is also the chairperson of the Technical Steering Committee of the AOJ, further explained that the objective of the workshop was to appreciate the challenges and successes of the AOJ during NDP 10.
The other objective is to appreciate the strategic imperatives for the AOJ during NDP 11, and to set the direction for the development of the AOJ NDP 11 strategy.

Justice Leburu further stated that the strategy would define the organisational aspirations and goals out of which the institution would be able to measure performance and determine if the organisation met the customer needs and expectation. “The strategy that we are about to formulate, ladies and gentlemen, should also reflect what we aim to achieve as a nation,” he added.
He said the need to formulate a strategy that was in consonance with the national Vision 2036, aptly themed Achieving Prosperity for All, was unavoidable. Justice Leburu encouraged the participants to meaningfully and actively contribute to “this important national exercise.”

In addition, he stated that “once the Draft Strategy Document is finalised, will be presented to the leadership of the organisation this year for approval.”
The AOJ Performance Improvement coordinator, Ms Bafeletse Butale explained that the development of the strategy would provide an oversight of the organisation’s five-year plan period. “Ensure that the strategy is known, approved, implemented and evaluated,” he said adding that once the final document was done, workshop participants should kick-start the implementation process.

Meanwhile, the project manager of Pacific Institute, Mr Wandell Allmon said “Botswana is known for great strategies but the only problem is the implementation process.” He said this was because there was a missing line between the strategy and the implementers adding that there should be a good relationship between the two.
Mr Allmon noted that when there was no such, the organisation progress would slow down and take longer for the same repeated challenges to be addressed.
The same, he said, applies to an organisation that has a good working culture but without a strong team on the ground.

Mr Allmon further explained that the best way was to have a great strategy and a great team on the ground.
The Pacific Institute operates in 63 countries on six continents with programmes translated into 16 different international languages. In Southern Africa, it has offices in South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Swaziland.

The AOJ NDP 10 strategic Plan (2010-2016) came to an end in March 2016. Following the elapse of the strategy, the organisation has been operating on a transitional annual plan during the period 2016/17, as has been the case nationally.
The transitional period was adopted as a means to allow for the completion of the new national vision 2036, from which all national strategies needed to cascade.

Vision 2016 formed the foundation for the subsequent National Development 11, which was adopted by Parliament in November/December 2016, and came into operation in April 2017.
Therefore, the AOJ resolved as early as December 2016 to develop a new strategic plan for the NDP 11 period and the development of the plan was to be preceded by the review of the NDP strategy (2010-2016) which would be used as a basis to inform the AOJ strategy under NDP 11 . ENDS