12 Aug 2013

Kasane will host the fourth Northern Work Improvement Teams (WITS) convention beginning on August 30.

A total of 300 delegates from Gantsi, North West, Central, Francistown, Sowa town and Selebi Phikwe regions are expected to attend the convention.  

In an interview, the District Performance Improvement Coordinator (DPIC), Mr Balume Bulayani said these numbers will boost the tourism sector in Chobe, which is the major income vehicle in the area.

“Just about every lodge is fully booked already and this economic boost extends to services such as entertainment, food and various consumables,” he explained.

Mr Bulayani noted that projects identified by the WITS teams are very well thought of and broad, and this year they are looking at projects such as handling of malfunctioning IT equipment, reducing stockpiling in supplies units,  reducing wastage of government resources, just to mention a few.

One of the organisers, Mr Mandla Hlabano explained that some of the solutions identified by the teams are adopted by various authorities and put into use to address similar challenges.

“For instance, one team tackled fuel wastage and came up with a solution to have cars leave earlier for trips to be able to drive at a reasonable speed, saving fuel in the process as opposed to leaving late and then over-speeding, thus consuming more fuel in the process,” he noted.

Mr Hlabano said the Chobe District Council has adopted this practice to cut down on fuel consumption.

He added that since the convention offers a platform for decision makers such as council secretaries and town clerks, this makes benchmarking and adoption of best practices that much easier.

This year, he said, the WITS teams from councils which fall under the Ministry of Local Government, Tribal Administration and District Administration will participate.

The guest speaker will be the Hospitality and Tourism Association of Botswana chief executive officer, Ms Lily Rakorong.

The theme for this year is ‘Improved work ethics for quality service delivery.’ Ends