20 May 2019

Deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Colonel Duke Masilo, has underscored need for excellence and productivity.

Giving a keynote address at Francistown City Council excellence awards on May 17, Col. Masilo said productivity made everyone believe that there was excellent performance.

He explained that the will to win and the desire to succeed and reach full potential were key to personal excellence.

Col. Masilo said productivity was a result of commitment, intelligent planning and focused efforts.

He further stated that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development believed that human capital was its most important resource, hence launching an ambitious strategy that sought to develop and manage talent, improve performance in the next five years.

He said the strategy spelt out how the ministry should do things and cautioned employees to do things differently to improve service delivery.

Col. Masilo therefore challenged the city council to be innovative to service the community better, minimise costs and shorten processes.

He further stated that the staff should do things differently and embrace the use of new technologies to improve service delivery, adding that the time had come for everyone to adopt excellence as standard practice and organisational culture.

He urged staff to commit to give the best in everything in order to make the ministry a place of excellence.

“Our customers should not be given substandard service because each one of you has an individual duty to ensure that customers are happy and satisfied. Failure to do that is a breach of our contract of employment,” he added.

In her remarks, the mayor, Ms Sylvia Muzila said the excellence awards were meant to motivate the staff.

She said it should be understood that those who won, won because they worked as a team with those who did not win.

Ms Muzila further said Francistown was also implementing other employee incentives such as the employee of the month programme.

The mayor also commended five employees who scooped different awards at the ministry awards.

The award for the best employee of the year went to Mr Kudzani Mathumo, who is the parks attendant. Mr Mathumo also scooped the award for best performer.

The mayor’s award went to Ms Ethel Mosojane - a principal economic planner whilst the town clerks’ award went to Mr Joel Kgakge of Buildings Department. ENDS