23 Nov 2017

Government has decided to restructure some allowances that have been paid within the wage bill to create an additional 17 500 new jobs in different cadres across various ministries, from April 1, 2018.

That was revealed by President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama when presiding over the 43rd High Level Consultative Council meeting (HLCC) yesterday (November 23).

By addressing those allowances and changing them from the purpose they had been used for, President Khama said government would be able to create additional new jobs, which would cost around P340 million.

"This is the money which has been used for allowances or an allowance, which we are going to now restructure to ensure that we use this money instead, for those jobs which are needed in other areas of the economy.”

The major beneficiary in the job creation, he said would be the teaching service, where about 710 assistant teachers’ posts, 271 teacher aids and 5 000 teacher intern positions would be created.

Other positions, he said would be in servicing rural areas, such as police service, as well as monitoring and evaluation officers.

“It is my hope that these positions, whether permanent or temporary, will not only reduce unemployment, but will enhance service efficiencies within the public service,” he said.

He said for a long time, due to the issue of posts and budget, government had to engage a lot of personnel in the posts of temporary teachers.

Therefore, he said the initiative would allow government to re-engage some of the temporary staff into permanent positions.  

Again, he said even though government did create a lot of jobs, it was not its role to create jobs, but to be an enabler and facilitator.

He added that government, together with the private sector, would continue to try and promote, as much as possible, creation of more jobs by looking for opportunities ‘that we can also tinker with our budget to try and create employment.’

“I can tell you, if you can look at the ministers and permanent secretaries around you, they are constantly asking for more posts to be created to be able to carry out their functions,” he added.

However, he indicated that government was cautious not to escalate the wage bill owing to budget limitations and continuous economic and population growth, which required more services for more people.

Furthermore, President Khama said measures would also be taken to ensure that work that could otherwise require overtime pay, was performed within normal eight hours, allowable working time through introduction of shifts and flexi working periods.

However, where it is unavoidable for public officers to work regularly beyond their normal working schedule, he said the cadres would be committed after the necessary consultations were concluded, adding for 2016/2017 alone, non-committed overtime stood at P443 million.

Additionally, to further enhance job creation and ensure implementation of the Localisation Policy, as well as easy the employment of expatriates, President Khama said sectoral meetings would he held, starting with ministers on December 15.

These sectoral meetings he said were meant to ensure that expatriates employed into the economy should possess specific skills that do not exist in the country.

For every expatriate recruited, he said where possible three Batswana would have to be employed.

For his part, Business Botswana president, Mr Gobusamang Keebine, said the private sector was pleased to have worked with President Khama and learnt a lot from him and admired the way he handled issues throughout his tenure of office.

On behalf of the Business Botswana membership and the private sector at large, Mr Keebine thanked President Khama for his support and commitment towards improvement on the doing business environment in Botswana.

“The government of Botswana, under your leadership, has nailed a lot of success in its endeavour to create a conducive business climate in the country and we as private sector appreciate this,” he said.

From inception, he said Business Botswana’s objective was of business that drives the process of economic and social development in an advocacy, lobbying and representative capacity.

In its advocacy role, Mr Keebine said Business Botswana continued to be an inclusive business organisation that was structured to be effective, efficient, flexible and provide solutions for enterprises to attain their business objectives.

However, he expressed concern that Business Botswana had not been able to achieve its role due to the fact that it remained a voluntary to join the organisation.

“Most businesses, including some big corporates- particularly those who undertake tender based big infrastructural projects in the country, see no need to affiliate to Business Botswana and therefore not guided by its Code of Conduct on executing its responsibilities,” he said.

For that reason, he said in instances where corruption raised its head, this made it difficult for Business Botswana to assist in curbing the scourge. ENDS