26 Feb 2020

The 2013-2014 restructuring at Botswana Railways (BR) has resulted in the organisation operating with lean structure thereby affecting some of the operations.

The acting director Human Capital Mr Kgomotso Mahupela on Tuesday told the ongoing board of enquiry on the derailment of Botswana Railways passenger train that the restructuring adversely affected the performance of the organisation. Asked why there were only two instructors in the organisation, Mr Mahupela said the number was reduced because of the downsizing which affected both the lower-ranking cadres and managerial positions.

He also explained that due to restructuring, some qualifications were inflated. “By bringing up the level of education we thought we were improving”, he said.  This was after the board had also enquired on why the track masters were not hands-on, despite being a requisite given their position.

The board also brought to the attention of Mr Mahupela their concern that a trainer was also an assessor thereby expressing some doubts on the quality of work produced.

Mr Mahupela said one of their operational challenges was that the BR departments appointed people for acting positions without the authority from the top management.  “Although human capital is in charge of performance we rely on the supervisors,” he said.

 Asked if it was ideal to have many acting arrangements even in lower ranks, he responded on the negative and suggested that ideally each position should be filled. He said currently they were struggling to fill the enginemen positions and for that, they depend on recruitment of people on contracts.

The board of enquiry had also asked Mr Mahupela why they do not utilise the expertise of the former employees of BR to train the current ones, more especially that they were well versed and experienced. He said the policy at the organisation was that former employees be given priority in awarding of tenders, adding that if former employees were certified as trainers they would be engaged to train at BR.

The board also noticed that there was a lack of equipping personnel at BR. They advised that former employees could be engaged in the training of staff. According to the board, if the training was not done properly then the decision-making process would also be compromised like it was the case in December 10 incident. ENDS