15 Mar 2020

Directorate of Public Service Management director, Ms Goitseone Mosalakatane says that the recession that hit the globe about 12 years ago hit the government so hard that it was yet to recover from the effects.

Addressing government employees in Jwaneng on March 13, Ms Mosalakatane said that this was more so that the economy of the county was dependent much on minerals, which were traded globally, and further said that looking forth, there was still much to do until the county fully recovered economically.

She said that was made even worse by other emerging challenges such as the current pandemic of coronavirus.

In that light, she encouraged the civil service that in these dire times, the nation should put more effort in areas such as skills and knowledge development as a means of survival. She said that was the reason the current leadership had been looking to tap into those areas.

“We should take leaf from countries such as Singapore, which is a city state and much smaller than Botswana, but rated high in many areas such as economy, low corruption and productivity, all because they tapped much into knowledge and skills development,” she said.

She said that Botswana could  similarly achieve the same feat provided all stakeholders put their minds to it. “Even if we were reluctant to embrace such changes, the fourth revolution of digitisation will ultimately catch up with us, so I encourage you to adopt the use of technology in your ministries. It’s not too late to embrace technology,” she said.

On other issues, Ms Mosalakatane said that the directorate was in the process of reviewing some old policies and acts that govern the civil service as most of them had been overtaken by times to the extent that they even cause conflict in the workplace because they are no longer practical.

Concerning the PEMANDU report, Ms Mosalakatane said that it noted that there was a narrow gap between notches in the same scale, such that it took just about five years for the person at the lowest notch to catch up with the most high.

She said that this demoralised those who were promoted first, and that the report even advised that the directorate should do away with notches and allow individuals to progress on the basis of performance.

On issues of lack of accommodation, Ms Mosalakatane advised civil servants to assist government with addressing the issue by leasing out their private houses to government. 

She said it was not always possible to transfer people within the desired time as transfers were informed by various factors such as availability of a similar post, socialisation, especially in scarce skilled personnel and lack of funds by ministries to pay transfer allowances.

Ms Mosalakatane was responding after Jwaneng deputy district commissioner, Mr Lesang Kgomoetsile touched on lack of accommodation for civil servants as well as the issue of taking too long for officers to be transferred as some of the burning issues in the area. Ends