22 Oct 2017

Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Thato Kwerepe has implored Francistown public servants to become adults who help raise a responsible society.

Reacting to the remarks by the Basic Education northern regional operations director, Mr Donga Gadibolae, who cited alcohol and drug abuse in schools as one of the challenges in Francistown, Mr Kwerepe said drug and alcohol businesses were operated by adults who should ensure they did not sell to children.

Mr Kwerepe noted that drug and alcohol abuse had become a countrywide problem among children and it should be the responsibility of adults to ensure they kept them away from children.

He said even in the olden days, drugs such as marijuana were available, but adults made sure they were not accessible to children.

On other issues, the assistant minister informed the public servants that they were an integral part of government and therefore should be continuously consulted by the legislature to ensure services were delivered to Batswana.

Mr Kwerepe encouraged public servants to take advantage of the meetings he addressed to help government come up with solutions to challenges such as unemployment, overstaying and shortage of resources.

He encouraged public servants in various departments to share resources and reach out to Batswana.

Mr Kwerepe noted that the public servants were still not doing enough to improve on the 10 negative public perceptions, also known as 10-Point Agenda.

He encouraged those who have overstayed in Francistown not to concentrate only on the negative, but also explore existing opportunities in the area to develop themselves.

Mr Kwerepe encouraged them to follow the set guidelines of engaging in private businesses and empower themselves.

Francistown chairperson of Botswana Land Boards, Local Authorities and Health Workers Union, Mr Mudongo Zikhale suggested that the P148.50 subsistence allowance be increased to P500.

He said the increase would help encourage some public servants to opt for the allowance instead of travelling imprest, which was expansive for government.

Mr Zikhale suggested that employees should be given 15 per cent of their salaries as housing allowance, while those who chose pool or institutional housing should be left to do so and forfeit the allowance.

He proposed that the salary advance scheme enjoyed by employees at D4 scale and below should start at D2.

In response, assistant director at the Directorate of Public Service Management, Mr Victor Manyanda said public service housing allowance would be looked into since government employees around the country had been making similar suggestions.

Mr Manyanda said the salary advance scheme for officers up to D4 scale was only introduced last year and already many could not benefit due to limited budget, therefore including those suggested would stretch the budget even further.

He said since local per diem was not approved, there was need to look into the issue of subsistence allowance and travelling imprest as a way of decreasing costs for government.

Earlier in his welcome remarks, Mr Gadibolae thanked the assistant minister for his countrywide tour, saying it provided dialogue and in the process encouraged mutual working relations between the public servants and the political leadership.

He said while Francistown was one of the performing areas in the country, the public service was still faced with shortage of resources and accommodation.

Town clerk, Mr Mompati Seleka said the city came up with interventions to improving service delivery.

Such, he said, included turning Selepa and Gerald Estate into service centres, rationalising employees in the central and the council and sharing of vehicles between the council and central government employees. ENDS