07 Jul 2019

The Assistant Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Mr Kostantino Markus says Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN) staff were offered and released either on voluntary early exit or involuntary exit in the new organisational structure. Answering a question in Parliament from Gaborone North MP Mr Haskins Nkaigwa, Mr Markus said employees who were offered the packages could not fit into the new structure. However, he said that there were no special programs for those who could not find work. 

Furthermore, Mr Markus said those who were released on early exit were paid separation packages to setup income generation project or as seed funding to take advantage of existing government support programmes. In addition, Mr Markus said that BUAN would provide each one of the retrenched employees with a course of their choice at the Centre for In-Service and Continuation Education (CICE) in order to give them the necessary skills to operate their chosen projects. 

Mr Nkaigwa had asked the minister what special programmes were in place for the retrenched employees of BUAN. He also asked if government had any plans by government to come with special programs for people who lost their jobs due to retrenchmen. ENDS