04 Sep 2013

Government will not create health and safety posts within departments, Jwaneng councillors heard recently.

A correspondence from the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) read to a full council meeting stated that there were already officers doing the health and safety job.

“We cannot create the health and safety post for government departments because currently the health and safety aspect is embedded in the job effectiveness description for HIV/AIDS Coordinator. The primary purpose of this job is to coordinate the implementation of HIV/AIDS prevention, health, safety and wellness programmes in the work place,” reads the savingram from DPSM director, Mr Carter Morupisi.

The savingram states that government would in the future modify the title for HIV/AIDS coordinators to encompass the other roles.“The DPSM is in the process of rationalising the nomenclature of the HIV/AIDS coordinator to reflect its broader role of coordinating issues of wellness in the work place.”

Councillors had in their June meeting passed a motion requesting government to create such posts after the mover, Masa-a-sele ward councillor, Mr Tsietsi Oodira-Kwenje explained how such officers would help with all safety issues within government departments.

Mr Oodira-Kwenje, who is also the deputy mayor, expressed concern that government departments did not have health and safety officers even though workers’ safety was one of the crucial aspects of any organisation. BOPA